Actually it's just a political thing in the United States because these issues have important political components and consequences in the United States, and the political system is the only system we use to do such things. Therefore there are a lot of people writing about it in that kind of style and tone. In social and cultural settings its never really brought up because the only people who really care about that stuff are home fixing everything on the internet and not out in society being social at all. If they even have the capacity to be social.
else where in the world we[ gay and trans] tend to be "one big happy family" ...
Actually pretty much outside of the First World gay and trans are not one big happy family, they are persecuted, and not organized. In fact, else where in the world most of the people live in the third world and these are not problems that concern them at all.