Misconceptions and Myths About the LGBTQ+ Community

LGBTQ+ people are frequently misrepresented or stereotyped in American culture — so much so that this misrepresentation has influenced state and federal laws stripping LGBTQ+ individuals of rights.

In the 2025 legislative session, there are close to 600 anti-LGBTQ+ bills nationwide, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

College-age students who identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community have felt the effects — from the closing of LGBTQ+ equity centers on campus as a result of DEI bans to the policing of where transgender students can use the bathroom.

Read on to learn more about common misconceptions and myths about the LGBTQ+ community.

Many people believe that being gay, lesbian, bisexual, or otherwise is something a person actively chooses. However, more than 30 years of research has concluded that being LGBTQ+ is an identity and not a choice.

LGBTQ+ people can be found everywhere — throughout thousands of years of history, across different countries, ethnicities, and income levels. The latest data suggests that nearly 8% of the total U.S. adult population identifies as LGBTQ+, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2024 Household Pulse Survey.

Younger generations are more likely to identify and ally with the LGBTQ+ community due to increased visibility, social and cultural acceptance, and access to information about LGBTQ+ identities.

The use of pronouns to specify gender identity is an increasingly polarizing issue.

Some states have policies that prevent employees from sharing preferred pronouns in email signatures. Others have policies protecting teachers, public employees, and students from disciplinary action if they refuse to use another individual’s preferred pronouns or chosen name.

What is upsetting or confusing to many is that pronouns are explicitly highlighted in contexts about gender and sexuality. Yet, as a heavily utilized part of the English language, pronouns have always served to identify gender.

Everybody has preferred pronouns, whether or not they identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community.

While public universities are not allowed to mandate you use someone’s preferred pronouns, repeatedly using nonpreferred pronouns toward a particular individual could be seen as harassment, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a free speech advocacy group.

Several states have recently enacted bans that police where transgender college students can use the bathroom, including Florida, Arkansas, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Utah.

These bills often claim safety and privacy concerns as the basis for banning trans individuals from using the bathroom of their gender identity. However, research has not found any evidence of harm to cisgender people when transgender people use the restroom that aligns with their true gender.

In reality, transgender individuals are at a greater risk of violence when using bathrooms that correspond to their sex at birth.

The lack of clear enforcement guidance for “bathroom bills” can result in situations where cisgender individuals are asked to prove their gender and students are pressured to self-report their peers suspected of being transgender using the bathroom.

The NCAA changed its transgender student-athlete participation policy following Trump’s executive order banning transgender athletes from women’s sports.

The order, primarily aimed at transgender women, argued that their involvement in women’s sports is unfair and “denies women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports.”

However, athletes who were assigned male at birth and have transitioned have not shown to have outstanding advantages over athletes assigned female at birth.

Any advantages that transgender athletes may have are similar to a swimmer having a long wingspan or a basketball player being exceptionally tall — human bodies are built differently.

Sports leagues have strict guidelines to determine when transgender athletes can compete after transitioning.

Additionally, very few transgender athletes are participating at a college or elite level. Before the NCAA issued its new policies, NCAA President Charlie Baker stated that he believed there were fewer than 10 transgender athletes out of a total of over 500,000 college student-athletes.

As of April 2025, 15 state bills and executive orders targeting DEI funding, practices, and promotion at schools have been signed into law.

Trump’s executive order on DEI has significantly impacted colleges, affecting everything from college accreditation to graduation ceremonies.

Opponents of DEI claim it is discriminatory and gives an unfair advantage to individuals with certain characteristics over others. DEI efforts on college campuses include specialized community centers, designated scholarships, or graduation ceremonies geared to LGBTQ+ students.

DEI programs and initiatives do not hurt other student populations, supporters say. Instead, they offer targeted resources to LGBTQ+ students, who are more likely to experience poor mental health, bullying, and harassment.

On his first day in office, Trump issued an executive order that recognized male and female as the only two sexes and that these sexes were assigned at birth and unchangeable. He also stated that gender identity “cannot be recognized as a replacement for sex.”

This order has had broad implications, such as the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) offering only “male” and “female” as options for applicants when asking about their sex, eliminating the “nonbinary” and “prefer not to answer” options that were available on previous years’ forms.

The typical argument against transgender and nonbinary identities is that gender and biological sex are not different. Detractors say there are only two genders because there are only two sexes.

Yet, even biology isn’t clear-cut. It has been proven that biological sex does not exist in a binary, not to mention that this ideology completely erases the existence of intersex people.

Government and school forms require students to answer questions about their gender and/or sex, often forcing intersex and nonbinary students to select a gender they may not identify with.

Many people’s opinions about unfamiliar subjects, especially regarding historically excluded communities, are influenced by stereotypes.

Though some stereotypes are simply exaggerations of the truth or misunderstandings of cultural norms, others have been purposefully created to cause harm.

The stigma and discrimination against LGBTQ+ communities don’t just harm students who identify with those communities, they can also affect the student body as a whole.

A diverse student body helps students expand their worldview and learn from one another, challenges stereotypes, encourages critical thinking, and prepares students to work in diverse environments.

Allies and LGBTQ+ students alike have the power to spread awareness of misconceptions and myths that surround LGBTQ+ communities and push back against people in power who try to dictate what is true and what isn’t.