BS BULLETIN:

• Gay writer James Kirchick told Bill Maher he sees a growing divide between gay and lesbian Americans and the broader “queer” political movement.
• Kirchick argues that “queer trans extremism” is creating a backlash that is now hurting support for same-sex marriage.
• There really has been a shift: Gallup finds support for same-sex marriage has fallen from a 71% peak to 65%, driven largely by a steep decline among Republicans.

For decades, gay-rights activists fought to persuade Americans to support same-sex marriage.

James Kirchick is worried some of those gains are now being given back.

The openly gay writer made an unusually blunt argument during Friday’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” distinguishing between being gay or lesbian and identifying with what he described as a much broader “queer” political movement.

“To be gay or lesbian is a separate sexual orientation. That’s it,” Kirchick said. “To be queer is to embrace a whole political orientation.”

Kirchick pointed to everything from gender politics and pronouns to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as examples of issues that have become bundled into that identity. He specifically cited the treatment of California state Sen. Scott Wiener, who is gay and has faced protests over his support for Israel.

Even an openly gay Atlantic writer is now FED UP with LGBTQ virtue signaling.

And he’ll probably get canceled for saying this.

On Bill Maher, James Kirchick spent 2 full minutes warning that “queer extremism” is DESTROYING support for gay marriage, and he actually nails it.… pic.twitter.com/tcnYkOtBjT

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) September 26, 2026

Kirchick’s broader concern, however, was what he believes this political shift is doing to public acceptance of gay Americans.

“And all this queer trans extremism is having a real impact,” Kirchick said. “Support for gay marriage has started going down.”

That part is measurable. Gallup’s 2026 polling found that 65% of Americans support legal same-sex marriage. That’s still a solid majority. But it’s down from the record 71% Gallup measured in both 2022 and 2023, ending what had been a remarkable decades-long climb in public acceptance.

The change becomes much more dramatic when Republicans are isolated. In 2021 and 2022, 55% of Republicans supported same-sex marriage. Today, Gallup puts that number at just 37%. Support among independents has also slipped to 67%, while Democratic support remains essentially unchanged at 87%.

Kirchick has a theory about what’s happening.

“I don’t think that’s because millions of Americans just woke up one morning and said, ‘Oh, we’re homophobic now,’” he told Maher. “I think it’s a backlash to this queer extremism.”

“And it’s, you know, as a gay man, that’s something I really worry about, frankly.”

Gallup itself does not establish that transgender or queer activism caused the decline. Its polling does, however, show that several measures of public support involving LGBTQ issues have moved downward from their early-2020s peaks.

Only 38% of Americans now say changing one’s gender is morally acceptable, down eight points from 2021. Meanwhile, the percentage saying gay or lesbian relations are morally acceptable has fallen to 62%, its lowest reading since 2016.

Kirchick’s argument also isn’t occurring in isolation.

Last month, the Log Cabin Republicans formally refocused themselves as an LGB organization, dropping transgender advocacy from their national mission. The group’s president made a strikingly similar argument: that increasingly controversial transgender issues were beginning to threaten political gains made by gay and lesbian Americans.

Now Kirchick is raising the same alarm from Bill Maher’s table.

The question isn’t whether support for gay marriage has declined. The numbers say it has. The fight is over why.

MY QUICK TAKE:

For years, LGBT was treated politically as one word.

Now some gay activists and writers are publicly asking whether those letters actually represent very different movements — and whether tying them together is beginning to cost gay Americans support they spent decades building.

Kirchick isn’t some guy yelling from outside the movement. He’s looking at the polling from inside it and saying: Guys, we may have a problem.

DBS WIRE SOURCES:

• Twitchy — Gay writer warns growing trans and queer movement is hurting gay marriage
• Real Time with Bill Maher — James Kirchick discussion transcript
• Gallup — U.S. support for LGBTQ issues remains down from peak
• Axios — Republican support for marriage equality and LGBTQ rights sinks
• The Daily BS — Log Cabin Republicans drop the ‘T’: ‘We are an LGB organization’