The gay liberation movement, as Hollibaugh framed it, used to be about freedom, about bringing the complexity and fluidity of queerness into the social eye to be accepted at face value without pigeonholing groups or recreating the power structures already engrained in society. Now, the gay liberation movement has become what it was trying to overthrow. It is filled with power structures and a vision of the “gay nuclear family.” That is, a family just like the conventional “nuclear family” but gay. Hollibaugh argues that the complexity of the queer community has been shunned in favor of “gender-appropriate gay representatives,” i.e. those that fit within what is now considered conventionally gay. In other words, the gay liberation movement has become about showing that “we are just like them,” as Hollibaugh put it, rather than about moving past convention and the nuclear family and opening up a whole new concept of what it means to be a sexual and gendered being.
Gender and sexuality, according to Wilchins, are intimately intertwined; inseparable. However, Whilchins points out that “White American culture tends to be one of the few that splits sexual orientation from gender.” This rift is especially apparent in transgender rights. Transgender, at one point, became used as a term to describe “anyone who crossed gender lines.” Cross dressers and transsexuals were grouped under the same category of transgender. This description of transgender indicates that there is a near indistinguishable tie between sexuality and gender. We, as a society, have defined gender based on sexuality and have used their respective terms to uphold the gender binary and “traditional” sexual sentiments. What the term transgender goes to show, is this intimate tie. If gendered objects and sexuality can be grouped and accepted under a single term, there must be a strong connection between them. In my own life, I have seen how passing privilege in terms of sexuality is innately tied to gender and traditionally masculine or feminine behaviors. I can easily pass as straight due to my traditionally masculine appearance and many of my gendered and therefore sexualized interests (such as sports, hiking, camping, martial arts, etc.). On the other hand, I can just as easily express that I am not straight by partaking in traditionally feminine activities such as crocheting, winterguard (which is heavily dance based), cooking, jewelry making, etc. I can therefore conclude that gender, and gendered activities lead people to assume sexuality and are therefore intimately related.