On August 24, the official online journal of the Witherspoon Institute (The Witherspoon Institute) The Public Discourse published an article written by Glenn T. Stanton entitled “Gay Pride 2026: Leaders Admit They Have Lost Control of Their Movement” (Gay Pride 2026: Leaders Confessed Losing Control of Their Movement). The author argues that in 2026, prominent early figures in the movement—particularly Andrew Sullivan and Matthew Vines—publicly voiced disappointment and concern about the direction the movement is taking. In their view, the original struggle for the rights of gay people (LGB) is being displaced by a more radical queer and trans agenda (TQ+).
This piece is a brief summary Doberman Media of the original article, while you can read the full version at this link.
A profound identity crisis has emerged within the American sexual-minority rights movement and is spreading around the world. Several influential leaders and ideologues of the movement who helped pioneer the legalization of same-sex marriage have publicly stated that they have lost control of the agenda, which is now entirely shaped by radical queer activists. In their view, the fight for gay equality has effectively led to their “erasure” as the new gender theory denies biological sex.
Movement veterans warn of the “erasure” of gays and lesbians
One of the first to speak out about the crisis was columnist Andrew Sullivan, who, back in 1989, published put forward the first serious proposal to legalize same-sex unions. His idea was that integrating gay couples into the traditional institution of the family would stabilize society and reduce radicalism. Sullivan admitted that he was astonished by how quickly the original foundations of the LGBT movement began to erode after 2015.
In his view, the LGBT project has turned into a confrontation between “queers and homosexuals,” with the latter losing.
According to Sullivan, queer activists quietly changed the meaning of the word “gay.” It now means not attraction to one’s own biological sex (same-sex attraction), but attraction to one’s own “gender” (same-gender attraction). Under this new interpretation, the word “man” includes people with a uterus and vagina, stripping the traditional concept of homosexuality of any physiological meaning.
«Никто не собирал пресс-конференцию, чтобы объявить, что после 2015 года (когда Верховный суд США легализовал однополые браки) движение за права геев полностью изменило свою суть. Но факт остается фактом: теперь движением управляют “квиры”»
Andrew Sullivan, 2023 essay
The final straw for Sullivan was New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s official statement of June 1, 2026. In his Pride message, the official referred exclusively to “queer and trans people,” omitting the LGB acronym (lesbians, gays, bisexuals) entirely. Sullivan concluded: “This is where we have ended up… We’ve been set back 20 years.”.
“I’m gay, not queer”
In late June 2026, a younger activist, Matthew Vines, joined the discussion. Vines is the author of the influential 2014 book “God and the Gay Christian.” In his column for The New York Times titled “I’m gay, not queer. That matters” Weins stated that the concept of “queer” (the letter Q in the acronym) is completely displacing gay people (the letter G).
Related story: "I'm gay, not queer." The New York Times published an essay on the terminology that angered (and inspired) activists
According to Weins, a full-fledged “war of worldviews” is raging between moderate homosexuals and radical queer activists. While the traditional LGB movement maintained that sexual orientation is innate (“born this way”), queer activists see it merely as part of a broader protest against social norms.
Weins openly fears that rejecting the biological binary jeopardizes the legal status of same-sex marriage. If biological sex is not real, then the very concept of a “same-sex” union loses its legal basis. Weins has already faced harsh criticism for this position from major queer-focused publications such as The Advocate and The Washington Blade.
Why the “Born This Way” slogan is becoming a thing of the past
The idea that homosexuality is innate, which long served as the main argument in the fight for civil rights, is no longer embraced by leading activists.
In a 2018 TED talk, researcher Lisa Diamond called for abandoning the “Born This Way” argument, describing it as ineffective in achieving equality. Scientific evidence also failed to support the theory: in 2019, a large-scale genetic study by scientists from MIT and Harvard showed that there is no “gay gene.”
Journalist The New York Times Lydia Polgreen also rejected the argument that homosexuality is innate, calling it an oversimplification that denies people the possibility of “sexual inventiveness.” Instead of the concept of a fixed orientation, modern activism is dominated by a “theory of sexual configuration,” which assumes that identity is entirely flexible and fluid.
What is the essence of the anthropological conflict?
Analysts point out that the conflict within the movement is embedded in its very structure. The letters L, G, and B (lesbians, gays, and bisexuals) logically rely on the sex binary (male and female), since attraction to one's own or the opposite sex is impossible without acknowledging the biological reality of sex. At the same time, the letter Q (queer) and numerous new gender identities were created precisely to dismantle this binary.
Because of this denial of biological differences, traditional female homosexuality is effectively being erased from the agenda. Since 2021, claims about the “extinction of traditional lesbians” have often been branded transphobic in American discourse.
Critics note that the radical institutional reform launched by leaders of the campaign for same-sex marriage initially had no internal constraints, and is now predictably destroying the very foundations on which it was built.
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