ĭespite 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 specifically identified in the four-letter initialism. 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. This spurred some organizations to adopt new names, as the GLBT Historical Society did in 1999. Not until the 1990s within the movement did gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people gain equal respect. įrom about 1988, activists began to use the initialism LGBT in the United States. LGBTQ activists and artists have created posters to raise consciousness about the issue since the movement began. Each community 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. Critics said that transgender people were acting out stereotypes and bisexuals were simply gay men or lesbian women who were afraid to come out and be honest about their identity. Īfter the elation of change following group action in the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City, in the late 1970s and the early 1980s, some gays and lesbians became less accepting of bisexual or transgender people. Bisexual and transgender people also sought recognition as legitimate categories within the larger minority community. Lesbians who held the essentialist view, that they had been born homosexual and used the descriptor "lesbian" to define sexual attraction, often considered the separatist opinions of lesbian-feminists to be detrimental to the cause of gay rights. Lesbian feminists eschewed gender role play 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.
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As equality was a priority for lesbian feminists, disparity of roles between men and women or butch and femme were viewed as patriarchal. A dispute as to whether the primary focus of their political aims should be feminism or gay rights led to the dissolution of some lesbian organizations, including the Daughters of Bilitis, which was founded by Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon but disbanded in 1970 following disputes over which goal should take precedence. Īs lesbians forged more public identities, the phrase "gay and lesbian" became more common. The first widely used term, homosexual, now a term used primarily in scientific contexts, has at times carried negative connotations in the United States. LGBT publications, pride parades, and related events, such as this stage at Bologna Pride 2008 in Italy, increasingly drop the LGBT initialism instead of regularly adding new letters, and dealing with issues of placement of those letters within the new title. Other common variants also exist, such as LGBTQIA, with the A standing for " asexual," " aromantic," or " agender," and LGBTQIA+, where “he ‘+’ represents those who are part of the community, but for whom LGBTQ does not accurately capture or reflect their identity.” These two initialisms are sometimes combined to form the terms LGBTIQ.
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Those who add intersex people to LGBT groups or organizing may use the extended initialism LGBTI. LGBTQI or LGBTQI+ adds " intersex" to the definition. To recognize this inclusion, a popular variant, LGBTQ, adds the letter Q for those who identify as queer or are questioning their sexual or gender identity
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It may refer to anyone who is non-heterosexual or non- cisgender, instead of exclusively to people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. When not inclusive of transgender people, the shorter term LGB is still used instead of LGBT. The LGBT term is an adaptation of the initialism LGB, which began to replace the term gay in reference to the broader LGBT community beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s. At least some of the components of sexuality (regarding hetero, bi, straight), and also gender are stated to be on (different) spectrums of sexuality Many variants exist including variations that change the order of the letters, including LGBT+. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. LGBT is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender.