On Facebook and Twitter, I’ve seen some criticism of the SCOTUS ruling on marriage equality from trans people. The script may vary depending on the audience, but here’s an example. Rebecca Juro posited this on Facebook:

“The LGBT civil rights movement as we know it just came to a screeching halt now that SCOTUS has legalized marriage in all 50 states. LGBT working families and especially trans people are on our own now. Now that the rich gays have what they want, look for them to start funding Republicans to save even more money on taxes.

The rest of us are totally fucked now. Now that there will be no money for politicians in supporting LGBT rights and gay marriage will no longer be a hot topic for left-wing media, no one will notice or care what happens to the rest of us.

The battle is over. Gay Inc. has won and as always, it’s the LGBT working class who will find ourselves stuck with paying the price for that win.

Rah, fucking, rah.”

Where to begin…

Working LGBT families are served by the marriage equality win. You don’t need a sizeable bank account to get married to the one you love. Many trans people are also gay and are able to marry who they love. Trans people who are married now don’t have to be concerned about their current marriage being invalidated. The basis of a lawsuit like Nikki Araguz’s is now moot. Marriage equality and the funders of the fight aren’t suddenly going to stop giving money. “Rich gays” didn’t/don’t fund the fight. Mostly the funding came from private charitable foundations (like the Arcus Foundation and the Gill Foundation) and multi-national corporations. Many states stuck with us and “did the right thing.” States like California and Illinois passed LGBT non-discrimination legislation before going forward with the fight for marriage equality.

There are many strong positions to take against the role of government and marriage altogether, but that’s not what yesterdays ruling focused on. There are some who will argue that there’s been too much of a focus on marriage equality and not enough on trans rights (I’m one of those people, BTW), but that’s not what the SCOTUS ruling focused on.

It’s healthy to question the direction of the LGBT movement after Friday’s decision. But suggesting that GLBT families aren’t helped by the SCOTUS marriage equality decision and that the decision is bad for trans equality, is a bad argument that borders on homophobia.