Across the country, many Americans have commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision guaranteeing same-sex couples the right to marry nationwide. They have pointed to the broad social acceptance for same-sex marriage and vowed to fend off legal threats to the landmark ruling.
But for some veterans of the marriage equality movement, celebration was muted by another Supreme Court ruling a week earlier in which the right for states to ban some gender-transition medical treatments for young people was upheld. It is an area of L.G.B.T.Q. policy that has been as polarizing as same-sex marriage once was. But for many gay Americans and their allies, the two are of a piece.
“Just knowing that I knew at 12 for sure that I was attracted to men — not a doubt ever even crossed my mind — I’m sure that these kids know their bodies and know in their brains this is who they are,” said Matthew Hansell, one of the plaintiffs in the 2015 marriage case who spoke with The New York Times this week.
“My husband is nodding his head yes,” Mr. Hansell added.
The case, Obergefell v. Hodges, combined several lawsuits filed by gay couples in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee who either sought a marriage license or recognition of their same-sex union that was legally performed in another state.
Several couples involved in that case said they saw parallels to what transgender youths are facing now with a patchwork of state laws. At least 30 states still have statutes or constitutional amendments banning marriage equality, though they cannot be enforced because of the Supreme Court ruling. Over the last four years, 27 states have enacted partial or total bans on gender-transition treatments for minors.
“It’s shocking to me that the country cares enough to legislate against these kids,” said Sophy Jesty, 53, one of the plaintiffs in the Obergefell case who now lives with her wife, Valeria Tanco, and their two daughters in Charleston, S.C.
But some gay activists across the political spectrum believe their own cause is at odds with some trans rights advocacy, at a time when same-sex marriage is again in conservative cross hairs. The Southern Baptist Convention voted earlier this month to call on the Supreme Court to overturn Obergefell, and several chambers in Republican-led state legislatures have recently floated similar resolutions.
Andrew Sullivan, a prominent proponent of what he called the “conservative case for same-sex marriage,” wrote in a guest essay in The Times that gay and lesbian people risk losing hard-won acceptance when they associate with some elements of the trans rights movement. And Glenna Goldis, a liberal who participates in two advocacy groups — LGB Alliance USA and LGB Courage Coalition — that seek to sever the “TQ” from the standard acronym, said that many gay activists feel it is taboo to “suggest any disjunction between gay and trans.”
Ms. Goldis, a lawyer and author of a Substack that is critical of the trans rights movement said she worries that gender-nonconforming kids and gay teens are opting for medical treatments to transition largely because they do not fit the social expectations associated with their sex: “I want to live in a world where people realize how dangerous it is to view gender nonconformity as something that should be medicalized,” Ms. Goldis said.
While puberty blockers and hormone therapy are endorsed by major medical associations in the United States as treatments for gender distress, one issue that persuaded a majority of justices to uphold the Tennessee ban is the lack of large, long-term studies of their physical and psychological effects on young people. Some have suggested that children whose gender identities are different from their birth sex will outgrow that feeling without medication. But that, for Mr. Hansell, echoes tropes about being gay: “‘Oh, it’s just a phase,’ ‘they’re experimenting in college,’ ‘it’s a drunken night.’ No, it’s not.”
Mr. Hansell and his husband, John Espejo, married in California and sought recognition in Tennessee after moving to the state for Mr. Hansell’s job. The couple feared that the state’s ban on same-sex marriage could put them at risk of losing their two children. They have since returned to California, and have followed the case in Tennessee in which a transgender teen is challenging the state’s ban on gender-transition treatments for young people.
“What do I do?” Mr. Hansell asked, putting himself in the shoes of a parent. “Do I leave the state because I want to be able to help her? Or do I just tell her, you know, ‘Buck up, girl. You have to continue to be a girl.’” He added, “I wouldn’t be able to do that.”
In recent months, the Trump administration has targeted issues that affect transgender people. He has sought to block access to medical transition for minors, even in states where it is legal; to prevent federal forms and identification documents from recognizing transgender identities; and to ban transgender people from serving in the military. Some Democrats have blamed the party’s loss in the 2024 election on a failure to distance itself from issues like trans athletes’ participation in sports or pronoun usage.
After opponents of same-sex marriage lost their fight, “it just seems like they found an easy target with trans people,” said Gregory Bourke, 67, of Louisville, Ky., and one of the Obergefell plaintiffs. “It really disturbs me.”
Lawyers who have represented both same-sex marriage plaintiffs and transgender plaintiffs said they were connected by gender stereotypes that remain deeply ingrained.
“Fundamentally, many of the laws that targeted gay people targeted gay people because of their gender nonconformity, which terrified Americans who were unfamiliar with gay people at the time,” said Camilla B. Taylor, the interim chief legal officer for Lambda Legal, a nonprofit focusing on L.G.B.T.Q. issues that was involved in both Supreme Court cases.
After the Supreme Court loss, transgender advocates have been wrestling with whether they would have been better off with a different legal strategy — one that relied on first building more public support. But L.G.B.T.Q. legal advocates say that like same-sex marriage, one round of the fight doesn’t determine the end.
After decades of legal and legislative losses across multiple states, Massachusetts became the first state to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2004 as a result of a 2003 state court decision.
“The effort to secure marriage equality was a deep, long, sustained effort, with significant legal bumps along the way,” said Jennifer Levi, a senior lawyer at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders who litigated the landmark Massachusetts same-sex marriage case.
And, in interviews, several transgender young people and adults said that they felt supported by the broader L.G.B.T.Q. coalition. Nicolas Talbott of Akron, Ohio, a transgender second lieutenant in the U.S. Army, said a number of gay service members who served under the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy have shared their stories.
“I’ve had folks reach out to me, saying, ‘We’ve been through similar. I wasn’t able to live authentically until I got out of the service,’” Mr. Talbott said, “And, ‘I hope it will be different for you.’”
Amy Harmon covers how shifting conceptions of gender affect everyday life in the United States.
Pooja Salhotra covers breaking news across the United States.
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