Below is my entry to a "Pride" writing contest on an erotic literature site whose name invokes an archaic reference to an alchoholic.

Pride Must Mean More
The lesbian, gay and transsexual communities are riddled with schisms. Gays regard transsexuals as crazies concealing their homosexual identities behind cosmetic and surgical facades. “Trans-exclusionary radical feminists,” many of them lesbians, strive to bar all trans-women from bathrooms and feminist organizations, finding common cause with their natural enemies, the cultural conservatives who despise all sexual and gender variance.
Pre-op transsexuals and their admirers disdain post-ops as crazy cutters for amputating what made them special, solely to amplify their masquerade. Post-op transsexuals mock pre-ops as queens and their admirers as closeted gays hiding behind their trans girlfriends’ skirts . No wonder the right wing has such an easy time ghettoizing and oppressing gays, lesbians, transsexuals and trans-fans: they divide and conquer.
What does this have to do with pride? People of sexual or gender minorities express pride by affiliating with the sexual minority they most closely resemble, and through that group identity find a source of pride. But like a pride of lions, their pride derives from their shared experiences and aspirations, and their homogeneity of outlook and interests leads them to view those outside the pride as foes, or prey. In a world where enemies ranging from world leaders to right wing hate groups pour vitriol against gender and sexual variance, such pride “goeth … before a fall.” Proverbs 16:18.
Pride for the LGBTQ community must be more than a defense of “like kinds” against a hostile world. Pride must encompass, and embrace, other colors on the gender variance rainbow: we must be proud not only of ourselves, but of one another. TERFs should stop embargoing trans women, gays and lesbians should treat transwomen as their sisters, and internecine mockery between pre ops and post ops and their admirers should give way to mutual respect.
Pride means loving one another for the differences that make each of us unique, and valuable, in our own way.

This essay is derived from my novels The Greatest Liar, Trans Fiction With A Purpose and
The Greatest Liar, Trans Erotica With A Purpose, both of which may be read on a website named after a large South American river, free for Prime members.