01-07-2025
Have Gay Rights Gone Too Far, or Not Far Enough?
To the Editor:
In 'Gay People Won. So Why Does It Feel as if We're Losing?' (Opinion guest essay, June 29), Andrew Sullivan claims that trans people, by seeking to protect the civil rights necessary for them to live safely, are trying do undo the gender binary and discount the gender identity of others.
But just as gay marriage did not erode the institution of marriage or make heterosexual marriages any less valid, the protection of the rights of trans folks simply has no effect on the validity of anyone else's gender.
As the mother of a trans child, I am terrified by the anti-trans legislation and rhetoric currently in vogue. I am afraid for my child's safety. I'm afraid that she will not be afforded the right to feel comfortable in her own body. I'm afraid that she will view abandonment by people like Mr. Sullivan as evidence that she is not wanted in this world.
One primary source of comfort for me has been the wisdom and experience of trans adults — all of whom have survived much worse. I sincerely hope that The Times will publish the views of one of those brilliant leaders sometime soon.
Skylar BrettSeattle
To the Editor:
As a centrist Democrat and a gender‑critical gay man approaching 70, I deeply appreciate how Andrew Sullivan revives meaningful discussion and makes room for dissident voices.
I was an effeminate boy who grew into a confident, masculine gay man — living proof that gender-nonconforming youth can flourish without conforming to harmful gender ideology. Today, I worry that many boys like me are at real risk of being steered into false identities — not because they belong there, but because it has become an unassailable ideological mandate.
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