Nearly 1 in 10 US adults identify as LGBTQ+ today—3 times more than in 2010. However, this comes at a time when right-wing attacks on LGBTQ+ people are on the rise, targeting trans people in particular. Over 550 anti-trans bills have been introduced across the country in 2025 so far in addition to a number of attacks from Trump’s administration. 

Most notably, this study found that nearly a quarter of Gen Z identifies as LGBTQ+. So why is that? Social victories like the legalization of gay marriage, movements against oppression such as the waves of BLM and the #MeToo movement and the strides made by earlier movements have decreased the stigma around queerness. This has opened many young people to non-conforming modes of self-expression and attraction. 

This generation has also been radicalized by poor economic prospects and capitalism’s crises. Young people today have come of age between the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic economic downturns, and have only faced capitalist crisis. We’re laden with student debt, struggling to get by with one job alone, and facing an unaffordable housing market. The prospect of raising children in this condition, when childcare, parental leave and the foundations upon which to build a family are hard to come by, is daunting at best. It’s easy to see how this can lead to less faith in the nuclear family and the capitalist system, but also an increased openness to nontraditional family structures. 

However, the current right-wing onslaught including, notably, Trump’s promise to “promote positive education about the nuclear family” and “the roles of mothers and fathers,” can lead to a reversal or slowing of this upward trend. Gender and sexual minorities are being vilified and the ideology of the nuclear family—foundational to class society—is being reinforced because the bosses need to discipline us in preparation for more hot wars in this era of inter-imperialist conflict. In response to this onslaught, people who are questioning could feel less inclined to come out and some may be pushed back into the closet. Additionally, a troubling number of other youth have been drawn towards the Manosphere, tradlife and homesteading, embracing the nuclear family often in rejection of the status quo.

We need to fight the right’s attacks on queer people—there’s no time to lose. The relatively small wave of protests around trans rights across the nation and outside Stonewall are a good first step. We need to broaden this movement and center it around concrete demands which can draw in the support of masses of working people outside of our community. Our fight needs to be linked to those of all the oppressed, against the right and capitalism. The movement should use Trans Day of Visibility, on March 31, as a rallying point and fight for fully funded social services, like Medicare for All with free gender-affirming care and abortion!