LGBT - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

LGBT is an initialism

Acronym and initialism

Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations formed from the initial components in a phrase or a word. These components may be individual letters or parts of words . There is no universal agreement on the precise definition of the various terms , nor on written usage...

that collectively refers to "lesbian

Lesbian

Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

, gay

Homosexuality

Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...

, bisexual

Bisexuality

Bisexuality is sexual behavior or an orientation involving physical or romantic attraction to both males and females, especially with regard to men and women. It is one of the three main classifications of sexual orientation, along with a heterosexual and a homosexual orientation, all a part of the...

, and transgender

Transgender

Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....

" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the community in question felt did not accurately represent all those to whom it referred.

The term LGBT is intended to emphasize a diversity of "sexuality and gender identity-based cultures

Sexuality and gender identity-based cultures

Sexuality and gender identity-based cultures are subcultures and communities composed of persons who have shared experiences, background, or interests due to a common sexual or gender identity. Among the first to argue that members of sexual minorities can constitute cultural minorities as well as...

" and is sometimes used to refer to anyone who is non-heterosexual or cisgender

Cisgender

Cisgender is an adjective used in the context of gender issues and counselling to refer to a class of gender identities formed by a match between an individual's gender identity and the behavior or role considered appropriate for one's sex.Kristen Schilt and Laurel Westbrook defined "cisgender"...

instead of exclusively to people who are homosexual, bisexual, or transgender.
To recognize this inclusion, a popular variant adds the letter Q for those who identify as queer

Queer

Queer is an umbrella term for sexual minorities that are not heterosexual, heteronormative, or gender-binary. In the context of Western identity politics the term also acts as a label setting queer-identifying people apart from discourse, ideologies, and lifestyles that typify mainstream LGBT ...

and are questioning

Questioning (sexuality and gender)

The questioning of one's gender, sexual identity, sexual orientation, or all three is a process of exploration by people who may be unsure, still exploring, and concerned about applying a social label to themselves for various reasons...

their sexual identity (e.g., "LGBTQ" or "GLBTQ", recorded since 1996).

The initialism has become mainstream as a self-designation and has been adopted by the majority "sexuality and gender identity-based

Sexuality and gender identity-based cultures

" community centers and media in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

and some other English-speaking countries

Anglosphere

Anglosphere is a neologism which refers to those nations with English as the most common language. The term can be used more specifically to refer to those nations which share certain characteristics within their cultures based on a linguistic heritage, through being former British colonies...

.

The initialisms are not agreeable to everyone that they literally encompass.
On the one hand, some intersex

Intersex

Intersex, in humans and other animals, is the presence of intermediate or atypical combinations of physical features that usually distinguish female from male...

people who want to be included in LGBT groups suggest an extended initialism "LGBTI" (recorded since 1999).
This initialism "LGBTI" is used all parts of "The Activist's Guide of the Yogyakarta Principles in Action

Yogyakarta Principles in Action

Yogyakarta Principles in Action is a movement for activists and human rights defenders to promote human rights, especially those of LGBTI around the Yogyakarta Principles, supported by ARC International, Hivos and Dreilinden Gesellschaft für gemeinnütziges Privatkapitel, Germany.They published the...

. On the other hand, some individuals of one group may feel no relation to the individuals in other groups denoted and find such persistent comparisons offensive.
Some argue that transgender and transsexual causes are not the same as that of "LGB" people.
A correlative to these ideas is evident in the belief of "lesbian & gay separatism", which holds that lesbians and gay men should form a community distinct and separate from other groups normally included.
Other people also do not care for the term as they feel the lettering comes across as being too politically correct

Political correctness

Political correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...

, an attempt to categorize

Categorization

Categorization is the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated and understood. Categorization implies that objects are grouped into categories, usually for some specific purpose. Ideally, a category illuminates a relationship between the subjects and objects of knowledge...

various groups of people into one gray area, and that it implies that the issues and priorities of the main groups represented are given equal consideration.

History

Before the sexual revolution

Sexual revolution

The sexual revolution was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships throughout the Western world from the 1960s into the 1980s...

of the 1960s, there was no common non-derogatory vocabulary for non-heterosexuality

Non-heterosexuals

Non-heterosexual is an umbrella term, describing homosexual, bisexual, asexual, and other people who do not identify as heterosexual. The term helps define the "concept of what is the norm and how a particular group is different from that norm"...

; the closest such term, "third gender

Third gender

The terms third gender and third sex describe individuals who are categorized as neither man nor woman, as well as the social category present in those societies who recognize three or more genders...

", traces back to the 1860s but never gained wide acceptance in the United States.

The first widely used term, homosexual, was thought to carry negative connotations and tended to be replaced by homophile
Homophile
The word homophile is an alternative to the word for homosexual or gay. The homophile movement also refers to the gay rights movement of the 1950s and '60s....

in the 1950s and 1960s, and subsequently gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

in the 1970s. As lesbian

Lesbian

s forged more public identities, the phrase "gay and lesbian" became more common. The Daughters of Bilitis

Daughters of Bilitis

The Daughters of Bilitis , was the first lesbian rights organization in the United States. It was formed in San Francisco in 1955, conceived as a social alternative to lesbian bars, which were considered illegal and thus subject to raids and police harassment...

folded in 1970 over which direction to focus on: feminism

Feminism

Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...

or gay rights issues. As equality was a priority for lesbian feminists

Lesbian feminism

Lesbian feminism is a cultural movement and critical perspective, most popular in the 1970s and early 1980s , that questions the position of lesbians and women in society. It particularly refutes heteronormativity, the assumption that everyone is "straight" and society should be structured to serve...

, disparity of roles between men and women or butch and femme

Butch and femme

Butch and femme are LGBT terms describing respectively, masculine and feminine traits, behavior, style, expression, self-perception and so on. They are often used in the lesbian, bisexual and gay subcultures...

were viewed as patriarchal. Lesbian feminists eschewed gender role play

Gender role

Gender roles refer to the set of social and behavioral norms that are considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex in the context of a specific culture, which differ widely between cultures and over time...

that had been pervasive in bars, as well as the perceived chauvinism of gay men; many lesbian feminists refused to work with gay men, or take up their causes. Lesbians who held a more essentialist view that they had been born homosexual and used the descriptor "lesbian" to define sexual attraction, often considered the separatist, angry opinions of lesbian-feminists to be detrimental to the cause of gay rights. This was soon followed by bisexual and transgender people also seeking recognition as legitimate categories within the larger community. After the initial euphoria of the Stonewall riots

Stonewall riots

The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City...

wore off, starting in the late 1970s and the early 1980s, there was a change in perception; some gays and lesbians became less accepting of bisexual or transgender

Transgender

Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....

people. It was thought that transgender people were acting out stereotypes and bisexuals were simply gay men or lesbian women who were afraid to come out

Coming out

Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....

and be honest about their identity. Each community that is collectively included has struggled to develop its own identity including whether, and how to, align with other gender and sexuality-based communities at times excluding other subgroups; these conflicts continue to this day.

The initialism LGBT saw occasional use in the United States from about 1988.
Not until the 1990s did it become common to speak of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people with equal respect within the movement.
Although the LGBT community has seen much controversy regarding universal acceptance of different member groups (bisexual and transgender individuals, in particular, have sometimes been marginalized by the larger LGBT community), the term LGBT has been a positive symbol of inclusion. Despite the fact that LGBT does not nominally encompass all individuals in smaller communities (see Variants below), the term is generally accepted to include those not identified in the four-letter acronym. Overall, the use of the term LGBT has, over time, largely aided in bringing otherwise marginalized individuals into the general community.

Transgender actress Candis Cayne

Candis Cayne

Candis Cayne is an American actress and performance artist.Known in the New York City nightclub scene since the 1990s, Cayne came to national attention in 2007 for portraying transgender mistress Carmelita on ABC's prime time drama Dirty Sexy Money...

in 2009 called the LGBT community "the last great minority", noting that "We can still be harassed openly" and be "called out on television."

Variants

Many variants exist including variations that merely change the order of the letters; LGBT or GLBT are the most common terms and the ones most frequently seen in current usage. Although identical in meaning, "LGBT" may have a more feminist

Feminism

connotation than "GLBT" as it places the "L" (for "lesbian") first. When not inclusive of transgender people it is sometimes shortened to LGB. LGBT or GLBT may also include additional "Q"s for "queer

Queer

" or "questioning

Questioning (sexuality and gender)

" (sometimes abbreviated with a question mark and sometimes used to mean anybody not literally L, G, B or T) which can then look like e.g., "LGBTQ", "LGBTQQ", or "GLBTQ?".

Other variants may add a "U" for "unsure"; a "C" for "curious"; an "I" for intersex

Intersex

Intersex, in humans and other animals, is the presence of intermediate or atypical combinations of physical features that usually distinguish female from male...

; another "T" for "transsexual

Transsexualism

Transsexualism is an individual's identification with a gender inconsistent or not culturally associated with their biological sex. Simply put, it defines a person whose biological birth sex conflicts with their psychological gender...

" or "transvestite

Transvestism

Transvestism is the practice of cross-dressing, which is wearing clothing traditionally associated with the opposite sex. Transvestite refers to a person who cross-dresses; however, the word often has additional connotations. -History:Although the word transvestism was coined as late as the 1910s,...

"; another "T", "TS", or "2" for "Two‐Spirit

Two-Spirit

Two-Spirit People , is an English term that emerged in 1990 out of the third annual inter-tribal Native American/First Nations gay/lesbian American conference in Winnipeg. It describes Indigenous North Americans who fulfill one of many mixed gender roles found traditionally among many Native...

" persons; an "A" or "SA" for straight allies

Straight ally

Straight ally is a colloquial term that describes a heterosexual person who supports equal civil rights, gender equality, LGBTQ social movements, and challenges homophobia. A straight ally believes that LGBT people suffer discrimination and thus are socially disadvantaged...

; or an "A" for "asexual

Asexuality

Asexuality , in its broadest sense, is the lack of sexual attraction and, in some cases, the lack of interest in sex. Sometimes, it is considered a lack of a sexual orientation...

". Some may also add a P for pansexual

Pansexuality

Pansexuality refers to the potential for sexual attractions, sexual desire, romantic love, or emotional attraction, towards people of all gender identities and biological sexes...

or polyamorous
Polyamory
Polyamory is the practice, desire, or acceptance of having more than one intimate relationship at a time with the knowledge and consent of everyone involved....

, and an O for other. The order of the letters has not been standardized; in addition to the variations between the positions of the initial "L" or "G", the mentioned, less‐common letters, if used, may appear in almost any order. Variant terms do not typically represent political differences within the community, but arise simply from the preferences of individuals and groups. The terms pansexual

Pansexuality

Pansexuality refers to the potential for sexual attractions, sexual desire, romantic love, or emotional attraction, towards people of all gender identities and biological sexes...

, omnisexual

Pansexuality

Pansexuality refers to the potential for sexual attractions, sexual desire, romantic love, or emotional attraction, towards people of all gender identities and biological sexes...

, fluid and queer-identified

Queer

are regarded as falling under the umbrella term "bisexual"

Bisexual community

Bisexual community is a term used to describe members of the LGBT community who identify as bisexual, pansexual, "fluid", and queer-identified, as well as their allies...

. Likewise, the terms transsexual and intersex are regarded by some people as falling under the umbrella term "transgender" though many transsexual and intersex people object to this (both for different reasons).

"SGL" (i.e. "same gender loving

Same gender loving

Same gender loving, or SGL, a term coined for African American use by activist Cleo Manago, is a description for homosexuals and bisexuals, particularly in the African American community. It emerged in the early 1990s as a [Black] culturally affirming homosexual identity. SGL is an alternative to...

") is sometimes favored among African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

s as a way of distinguishing themselves from what they regard as white

White people

White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...

‐dominated LGBT communities. "MSM" (er.g. "men who have sex with men

Men who have sex with men

Men who have sex with men are male persons who engage in sexual activity with members of the same sex, regardless of how they identify themselves; many men choose not to accept sexual identities of homosexual or bisexual...

") is clinically used to describe men who have sex with other men without referring to their sexual orientation.

A phrase introduced in the 2000s, "minority sexual and gender identities" ("MSGI"), used to include all letters and acronyms, has yet to find its way into common usage. The magazine Anything That Moves
Anything That Moves
Anything That Moves was a literary, journalistic, and topical magazine published in the United States from 1990 to 2002. It was created as an expansion of the San Francisco Bay Area Bisexual Network newsletter by BABN member, Karla Rossi, in collaboration with bisexual and bi-friendly editors,...

coined the acronym FABGLITTER (from Fetish

Sexual fetishism

Sexual fetishism, or erotic fetishism, is the sexual arousal a person receives from a physical object, or from a specific situation. The object or situation of interest is called the fetish, the person a fetishist who has a fetish for that object/situation. Sexual fetishism may be regarded, e.g...

such as the BDSM

BDSM

BDSM is an erotic preference and a form of sexual expression involving the consensual use of restraint, intense sensory stimulation, and fantasy power role-play. The compound acronym BDSM is derived from the terms bondage and discipline , dominance and submission , and sadism and masochism...

lifestyle community, Allies or poly-Amorous as in Polyamorous couples became more used, Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Intersexed, Transgender, Transsexual Engendering Revolution

Revolution

A revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...

or inter-Racial attraction), although this term has not made its way into common usage.

Another acronym that has begun to spread is QUILTBAG, from Queer/Questioning, Undecided, Intersex, Lesbian, Trans, Bisexual, Asexual, Gay. Again, this is not a common term. Similarly, in some areas people are starting to simply use 'LGBTetc' or 'LGBTQetc' to include everyone.

Other terms for subsections of the GLBT community include bear flag and unicorn flag http://unicornbooty.com/ represent other gay male organizations whom don't count themselves normally but are allied with the GLBT "rainbow flag" pride cause.

The initial A stood for Allies came from some of the paraphilia

Paraphilia

Paraphilia is a biomedical term used to describe sexual arousal to objects, situations, or individuals that are not part of normative stimulation and that may cause distress or serious problems for the paraphiliac or persons associated with him or her...

or sexual fetishism

Sexual fetishism

lifestyles, who are primarily in support for the GLBT community, and sometimes they form an alliance in sociopolitical affairs, to farther represent the umbrella term GLBTA (Gay Lesbian Bi Trans Alternative or Allies).

Criticism

The terms LGBT or GLBT are not agreeable to everyone that they literally encompass. For example, some argue that transgender and transsexual causes are not the same as that of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people. This argument centers on the idea that transgender and transsexuality have to do with gender identity

Gender identity

A gender identity is the way in which an individual self-identifies with a gender category, for example, as being either a man or a woman, or in some cases being neither, which can be distinct from biological sex. Basic gender identity is usually formed by age three and is extremely difficult to...

or a person's understanding of being or not being male and/or female irrespective of their sexual orientation

Sexual orientation

Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...

. LGB issues can be seen as a matter of sexual orientation or attraction. These distinctions have been made in the context of political action in which LGB goals may be perceived to differ from transgender and transsexual goals like same‐sex marriage legislation and human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

work that is not inclusive of transgender

Transgender

Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....

and intersex

Intersex

Intersex, in humans and other animals, is the presence of intermediate or atypical combinations of physical features that usually distinguish female from male...

people. Similarly, some intersex people want to be included in LGBT groups and would prefer the term "LGBTI" while others insist that they are not a part of the LGBT community and would rather that they not be included as part of the term.

A reverse to the above situations is evident in the belief of "lesbian & gay separatism" (not to be confused with the related "lesbian separatism"), which holds that lesbians and gay men form (or should form) a community distinct and separate from other groups normally included in the LGBTQ sphere. While not always appearing of sufficient number or organization to be called a movement

Social movement

Social movements are a type of group action. They are large informal groupings of individuals or organizations focused on specific political or social issues, in other words, on carrying out, resisting or undoing a social change....

, separatists are a significant, vocal, and active element within many parts of the LGBT community. In some cases separatists will deny the existence or right‐to‐equality of non‐monosexual

Monosexuality

A monosexual person is someone who is sexually attracted to one sex only, monosexuality being the corresponding sexual orientation...

orientations and of transsexuality

Transsexualism

. This can extend to public biphobia

Biphobia

Biphobia is a term used to describe aversion felt toward bisexuality and bisexuals as a social group or as individuals. People of any sexual orientation can experience such feelings of aversion...

and transphobia

Transphobia

Transphobia is a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards transsexualism and transsexual or transgender people, based on the expression of their internal gender...

. Separatists have powerful opponents - Peter Tatchell

Peter Tatchell

Peter Gary Tatchell is an Australian-born British political campaigner best known for his work with LGBT social movements...

of the LGBT human rights group OutRage!

OutRage!

OutRage! is a British LGBT rights group that was formed to fight for equal rights of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people in comparison to heterosexual people. It is a group which has at times been criticised for outing individuals who wanted to keep their homosexuality secret and for being...

argues that to separate the transgender movement from the LGB would be "political madness".

Many people have looked for a generic term to replace the numerous existing abbreviations. Words like "queer

Queer

" and "rainbow

Rainbow flag (LGBT movement)

The rainbow flag, sometimes pride flag, LGBT pride flag or gay pride flag, is a symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender pride and LGBT social movements in use since the 1970s. The colours reflect the diversity of the LGBT community, and the flag is often used as a symbol of gay pride in...

" have been tried but most have not been widely adopted. "Queer" has many negative connotations to older people who remember the word as a taunt and insult and such (negative) usage of the term continues. Many younger people also understand "queer" to be more politically‐charged than "LGBT". "Rainbow" has connotations that recall hippies, New Age

New Age

The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...

movements, and organizations like Jesse Jackson

Jesse Jackson

Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. is an African-American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He was the founder of both entities that merged to...

's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition

Rainbow/PUSH

Rainbow/PUSH is a non-profit organization formed as a merger of two non-profit organizations — Operation PUSH and the National Rainbow Coalition — founded by Jesse Jackson. The organizations pursue social justice, civil rights and political activism.In December 1971, Jackson resigned from...

in the United States.

The portrayal of an all-encompassing "LGBT community" or "LGB community" is also disliked by some lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people as well as ontologists

Ontology

Ontology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence or reality as such, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations...

. Some do not subscribe to or approve of the political and social solidarity, and visibility and human rights campaigning that normally goes with it including gay pride

Gay pride

LGBT pride or gay pride is the concept that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people should be proud of their sexual orientation and gender identity...

marches and events. Some of them believe that grouping together people with non-heterosexual orientations perpetuates the myth that being gay/lesbian/bi makes a person deficiently different from other people. These people are often less visible compared to more mainstream gay or LGBT activists. Since this faction is difficult to distinguish from the heterosexual majority, it is common for people to assume all LGBT people support LGBT liberation and the visibility of LGBT people in society, including the right to live one's life in a different way from the majority. In the 1996 book Anti-Gay, a collection of essays edited by Mark Simpson

Mark Simpson (journalist)

Mark Simpson is an English journalist, writer, and broadcaster specialising in pop culture, media, and masculinity. He has been described by one critic as "the skinhead Oscar Wilde" Simpson is a frequent commentator on British television shows....

, the concept of a 'one-size-fits-all' identity based on LGBT stereotypes

LGBT stereotypes

Stereotypes about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people are conventional, formulaic generalizations, opinions, or images about persons based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. Stereotypes and homophobia are a learned outlook, i.e...

is criticized for suppressing the individuality of LGBT people.

General references

The LibraryThing Blog. Tags again: GLBT vs. LGBT. Published online.
Safe Schools Coalition. Glossary. Published online.
Religious Institute. "Time to Seek" Definitions. Published online.
Stahl, S. Sorting the Alphabet Soup of Sexual Orientation and Identity: a Guide to LBGT Sources. Published online.

External links

GLBTQ — Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer encyclopedia
GayLGBT.com
Nonprofit Research Collection on LGBT Youth Published on IssueLab
University of Wolverhampton's student LGBT society
Directory of U.S. and international LGBT Community Centers
LGBT Network (Europe)
American Psychological Association's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Concerns Office
Genderguide has excellent powerpoint presentations explaining the acronym, and the differences between sex, gender and sexual orientation

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

History

Variants

Criticism

See also

General references

External links