My take is this: Log Cabin Republicans has every right to narrow its mission to LGB issues, and it is correct that sexual orientation and gender identity are not the same thing. But its explanation goes too far by treating “the transgender movement” as one radical, unified bloc. That repeats the same collective-labeling mistake conservatives have made against gay people for generations.

Drop the Groupthink, Not the People

Log Cabin Republicans Is Right to Separate the Issues, but Wrong to Judge Everyone by the Activists

By Peter R. Boykin
Founder of Gays For Liberty
Constitutionalist for Liberty

The Log Cabin Republicans has announced that it is officially narrowing its national advocacy mission from LGBT to LGB.

In an opinion column, organization president Ross Hemminger said the board voted to concentrate on sexual orientation, conservative values, marriage, adoption, military service, equal treatment under the law, and religious liberty. Log Cabin added transgender advocacy to its mission in 2015, but Hemminger says the organization no longer recognizes what modern transgender activism has become.

There is one important detail getting lost in some of the coverage: Log Cabin Republicans is not banning transgender conservatives from joining. Membership remains open to all conservatives, including transgender members. The organization is dropping transgender-specific national advocacy, not conducting a membership purge. Hemminger’s complete announcement can be read at Townhall.

That distinction matters, but it does not resolve the larger problem.

I understand part of Log Cabin’s reasoning. Sexual orientation and gender identity are different subjects. Gay marriage, adoption rights, medical treatments for minors, parental authority, women’s sports, school policy, compelled speech, and religious liberty should never have been bundled together as if they were one inseparable political package.

Gay and bisexual Americans should not have to endorse every position advanced by progressive gender activists before our own equal rights are respected.

I can oppose irreversible medical procedures for minors. I can support parental involvement. I can believe biological sex matters in women’s sports. I can reject compelled speech and ideological instruction in elementary schools. None of those positions requires me to hate transgender people or deny them equal protection under the law.

That is where I believe Log Cabin’s announcement crosses the wrong line.

Hemminger wrote that “the transgender movement has ceased focusing on adults at all” and now concentrates almost entirely on children. That is simply too broad. There are radical activists, moderate advocates, transgender conservatives, transgender adults who want to live privately, and detransitioners who believe the current medical system failed them. They are not all the same.

Not every transgender American supports medical transition for minors.

Not every transgender American supports biological males competing in women’s sports.

Not every transgender American supports secrecy from parents.

Not every transgender American is a progressive activist.

If gay people do not want to be judged by the most outrageous behavior at a Pride parade, we should not judge every transgender person by the most radical activist on social media.

The Evidence Supports Distinction, Not Collective Blame

Log Cabin is correct that public support for gay rights has weakened. Gallup found that support for legal same-sex marriage fell from 71 percent at its peak to 65 percent in 2026. Among Republicans, support fell from 55 percent in 2021 and 2022 to 37 percent. Gallup’s polling confirms the decline.

But that poll does not prove that transgender Americans caused the decline. It establishes a change in public opinion, not the reason behind it.

Other polling shows that Americans are capable of holding more nuanced positions than either political extreme admits. Pew found that 66 percent support requiring transgender athletes to compete according to their sex at birth, while 56 percent support banning medical gender-transition treatments for minors. Yet the same survey found that 56 percent support protecting transgender people from discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations. Pew’s findings demonstrate that these positions can coexist.

That is essentially the Gays For Liberty position.

Protect children. Preserve women’s sports. Respect parents. Defend free speech and religious conscience. But also protect peaceful adults from violence, arbitrary government power, and unequal treatment.

These are not contradictions. They are what principled individual liberty looks like.

Both Movements Are Losing Their Way

The progressive LGBTQ movement created part of this problem by turning an alliance into an ideological loyalty test.

If you question one medical procedure, one school policy, or one sports rule, you are labeled hateful. Gay people are expected to accept an ever-expanding political platform merely because someone placed another letter in the acronym.

But parts of the Right are now making the opposite mistake. They take the worst examples of transgender activism, project them onto every transgender person, and treat rejection as proof of conservative loyalty.

One side tells us, “Affirm everything or you are a bigot.”

The other side increasingly tells us, “Reject everyone or you are not a real conservative.”

Neither position is liberty.

The MS NOW article describes this division as the result of President Trump’s “anti-trans crusade.” I would not accept that framing wholesale. Trump did not force the Log Cabin board to make this decision, and supporting restrictions involving minors or women’s sports is not the same as attacking every transgender adult.

But the article is correct about one thing: the conservative gay and transgender coalition is fracturing. Pretending otherwise will not repair it.

We Do Not Have to Sacrifice People to Defend Principles

I am disappointed because this should have been an opportunity for Log Cabin Republicans to establish clear guardrails.

They could have said that LGB and transgender policy are different. They could have opposed medical transition for minors and defended women’s sports. They could have rejected radical gender ideology while continuing to defend the constitutional rights of peaceful transgender adults.

Instead, the announcement places nearly the entire transgender movement into one category and then blames that category for declining support for gay rights.

That is exactly the kind of collective labeling gay Americans have fought against for decades.

Gays For Liberty should take a different path. We should never confuse equal rights with endorsement of every political demand. We should never confuse policy disagreement with hatred. Most importantly, we should judge people as individuals.

Log Cabin Republicans has the right to call itself an LGB organization. Its national mission belongs to its members and board.

But removing a letter from an organizational mission should never become permission to remove people from the American promise of liberty.

The Left does not own gay or transgender Americans. The Right should not reject them as human beings. Our Constitution protects individuals, not acronyms, activist organizations, or political tribes.

Drop the groupthink. Challenge the activism. Draw reasonable policy lines.

But do not abandon the individual.

That is the difference between a movement built around resentment and a movement built around liberty.