The LGBT community is well aware that men and women are different. The existence of trans people is itself strong evidence if this. That is why the trans community is interested in gender affirming care.

No, it is an attack on much of the trans community.

"The LGBT community" is in and of itself a part of this weird usage of group terminology to muddy the waters. It's pretty much a political device invented for that purpose - if you don't support all you support none, which is clearly ridiculous.

And yet, gay men can be sympathetic to the needs and experiences of trans women.

The LGBT community is, in part, built on bonds of similar experiences of ostracism by the larger society.

Why not add other marginalized group to LGBT if being marginalized is the only criteria?

This is what you often see LGBTQ+ (the plus means anyone marginalized). Yes, it typically has to do with gender or sexual differences but that is pretty much marketing. It is easier to organize if you have a relatively clear community.

Groups have always had ways to define who was part of the group whether that group was political, religious, or a group of gamers. Calling it "marketing" sounds a little dismissive.

I said part of the reason for association was a shared experience of ostracism. Another is being outside the mainstream in a sexual and gender sense.

In recent years, there have been some efforts to tie racial justice into the LGBT identity, but that has been controversial as there is less alignment around issues. Black and brown bands were added to the rainbow flag as part of this, and that was also controversial. The feeling was that that flag was not originally racially focused.

> It’ll be a generation before people can once again admit there is a difference between men and women. If we admit men and women are different its the same a direct attack on much of the LGBT community.

As phrased its…not, though.

Each of the L, G, B, and T (well, perhaps not the B in all cases) relies pretty centrally on there being a difference between men and women.

(Now, if you were to say, “‘men’ and ‘women’ are defined by gender externally ascribed on the basis of (at least notionally) immutable non-identity characteristics”, then that’s a different story, but that’s a lot different than “there are differences between men and women”.)

It depends on what aspect of men and women you mean. Socialization, biology, endocrinology, reproduction? Saying "Men and women are different" is an easily defendable conclusion. However, the implications that you are making from that regarding anatomy, physiology, and psychology are very hard to prove. There is significant overlap between men and women in each aspect.

PS: This type of argument is called a Motte and Bailey. You provide two arguments, one weak and one strong then fall back to the strong argument when challenged.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motte-and-bailey_fallacy

> that this difference is profound

My pet theory is that that the the differences are usually minor. But differentiating between men and women is deeply wired into out brains. Some people are self aware enough to realize that and others like yourself are not.