is an initialism for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer. LGBTQ and related initialisms are umbrella terms, originating in the United States, broadly referring to all sexual and gender minorities. Many variants of the initialism are used to encompass intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender and other identities.
In the 1970s, the expression commonly used by activists was "gay and lesbian", in full. In the 1990s, the initialism GLBT (later LGBT) was gradually adopted, as bisexual and transgender people gained recognition. Around that time, some activists began to reclaim the term queer, seeing it as a more radical and inclusive umbrella term, though others reject it, due to its history as a pejorative. In recognition of this, the 2010s saw the adoption of LGBTQ, and other more inclusive variants.
LGBTQ people collectively form the LGBTQ community, though not all LGBTQ people participate in or consider themselves part of a broader community. These labels are not universally agreed upon by everyone that they are intended to include. For example, some intersex people prefer to be included in this grouping, while others do not. Various alternative umbrella terms exist across various cultures, including queer; same-gender loving (SGL); and gender, sexual and romantic minorities (GSRM).
Some versions of the term add a plus sign (+) to represent additional identities not captured by the letters within the initialism. Many further variants exist which add additional identities, such as 2SLGBTQ (for two-spirit), LGBTQQ (for queer and questioning), or, rarely, the letters ordered differently, as in GLBT and GLBTQ.
History
The first widely used term, homosexual, now a term used primarily in scientific contexts, has at times carried negative connotations in the United States.Media Reference Guide (citing AP, Washington Post style guides), GLAAD. Retrieved 23 December 2019. Gay became a popular term in the 1970s.
As lesbians forged more public identities, the phrase gay and lesbian became more common. 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 Daughters of Bilitis, which was founded by Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, but disbanded in 1970 following disputes over which goal should take precedence. As equality was a priority for lesbian feminists, disparity of roles between men and women or butch and femme were viewed as patriarchal. 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.Faderman, Lillian (1991). Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth Century America, Penguin Books. , p. 210–211.
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.Faderman (1991), p. 217–218. Bisexual and transgender people also sought recognition as legitimate categories within the larger minority community.
In the late 1970s and the early 1980s, after the elation of change following group action in the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City, some gays and lesbians became less accepting of bisexual or transgender people. The Gay Liberation Front, which was less assimiliationist, remained more accepting. 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. 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. LGBTQ activists and artists have created posters to raise consciousness about the issue since the movement began.
From about 1988, activists began to use the initialism LGBT in the United States.Research, policy and practice: Annual meeting , American Educational Research Association Verlag AERA, 1988. Not until the 1990s within the movement did gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people gain equal respect. Among others, bisexual activist Maggie Rubenstein and transgender activist Susan Stryker pushed to represent bisexual and trans identities explicitly. This spurred some organizations to adopt new names, as the GLBT Historical Society did in 1999. 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.
Beginning in the 1990s, the term queer began to be reclaimed from its earlier pejorative use, particularly by radical activists who sought to reject causes they viewed as assimilationist, such as marriage, military inclusion and adoption. Academic fields of study such as queer studies and queer theory build on this reclamation. The term queer is now in use as an umbrella term and as a distinct self-identity term analogous to gay, lesbian, and bisexual. The initialism LGBT eventually evolved to LGBTQ in recognition of the unique meaning of queer within the community.
In 2016, GLAAD's Media Reference Guide states that LGBTQ is the preferred initialism, being more inclusive of younger members of the communities who embrace queer as a self-descriptor. Some people consider queer to be a derogatory term originating in hate speech and reject it, especially among older members of the community.
Variants
Many variants of the term LGBTQ exist, such as the more inclusive , and variations that change the order of the letters or include additional letters. At least some of the components of sexuality (regarding hetero, bi, straight), and also gender are stated to be on different spectrums of sexuality. Other common variants also exist, such as LGBTQIA, with the I standing for intersex and the A standing for asexual, aromantic, or agender, and LGBTQIA+, where "the '+' represents those who are part of the community, but for whom LGBTQ does not accurately capture or reflect their identity".
Longer initialisms have been criticized as confusing or unwieldy, sometimes being referred to as "alphabet soup", and mocked with labels such as , , and . The implication that the initialism refers to a single community is also controversial.
Although identical in meaning, LGBT may have a more feminist connotation than as it places the "L" (for "lesbian") first. It gradually replaced GLBT as the most commonly used acronym in the mid-2000s, the political reason being lesbian underrepresentation in comparison to gay men. In Brazil, GLBT replaced GLS (Gays, Lesbians and Sympathizers), while LGBT was adopted in 2008 during the First LGBT National Conference. LGBT may also include additional Qs for "queer" or "questioning" (sometimes abbreviated with a question mark and sometimes used to mean anybody not literally L, G, B or T) producing the variants LGBTQ and .
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. In Hebrew and Peninsular Spanish, LGTB () is used, that is, reversing the letters "B" and "T". Variant terms do not typically represent political differences within the community, but arise simply from the preferences of individuals and groups.
The terms pansexual, omnisexual, fluid and queer-identified are regarded as falling under the umbrella term bisexual (and therefore are considered a part of the bisexual community). Some use LGBT+ to mean "LGBT and related communities". Other variants may have a "U" for "unsure"; a "C" for "curious"; another "T" for "transvestite"; a "TS", "2S", or "2" for "two-spirit" persons; or an "SA" for "straight allies".
The inclusion of straight allies in the LGBTQ initialism has proven controversial, as many straight allies have been accused of using LGBTQ advocacy to gain popularity and status in recent years, and various LGBTQ activists have criticised the heteronormative worldview of certain straight allies. Some may also add a "P" for "polyamorous" or "pangender", an "H" for "HIV-affected", or an "O" for "other". The initialism has seen use in India to encompass the hijra third gender identity and the related subculture.
Adding the term allies to the initialism has sparked controversy, with some seeing the inclusion of ally in place of asexual/aromantic/agender as a form of LGBT erasure. There is also the acronym (queer and questioning, unsure, intersex, lesbian, transgender and two-spirit, bisexual, asexual and aromantic, and gay and genderqueer). Similarly stands for "lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer/questioning, asexual and many other terms (such as non-binary and pansexual)".
The initialism LGBTQIAPK is sometimes used to represent lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer and questioning, intersex, asexual and aromantic, pansexual and panromantic, kink. "Kink", less categorical than “BDSM,” can refer to any non-‘vanilla’ sexuality, ‘vanilla’ being precisely defined as “conventional” and genital-centered sexuality. The inclusion of kinkiness/BDSM in the LGBTQ community has proven controversial.
, the Government of Canada's official term is 2SLGBTQI+, with the first two characters standing for two-spirit. Trudeau's new initialism was criticized by some social media users. For some indigenous people, two-spirit invokes a combination of identities, including sexual, gender, cultural, and spiritual. The government previously used LGBTQ2. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was also criticized for using the 2SLGBTQQIA+ initialism, which some considered too long and confusing.
Transgender inclusion The term trans* has been adopted by some groups as a more inclusive alternative to "transgender", where trans (without the asterisk) has been used to describe trans men and trans women, while trans* covers all non-cisgender (genderqueer) identities, including transgender, transsexual, genderqueer, genderfluid, non-binary, genderfuck, genderless, agender, non-gendered, third gender, two-spirit, bigender, and trans man and trans woman. Likewise, the term transsexual commonly falls under the umbrella term transgender, but some transsexual people object to this.
Intersex inclusion
Those who add intersex people to LGBTQ groups or organizations may use the extended initialism LGBTQI.William L. Maurice, Marjorie A. Bowman, Sexual medicine in primary care , Mosby Year Book, 1999,
The relationship of intersex to lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer communities is complex, but intersex people are often added to the LGBTQ category to create an LGBTQI community. Some intersex people prefer the initialism LGBTQI, while others would rather that they not be included as part of the term. Emi Koyama describes how inclusion of intersex in LGBTQI can fail to address intersex-specific human rights issues, including creating false impressions "that intersex people's rights are protected" by laws protecting LGBTQ people, and failing to acknowledge that many intersex people are not LGBTQ.
Asexual, aromantic and agender inclusion
In the early 2010s, asexuality and aromanticism started gaining wider recognition. Around 2015, they were included in the expanded initialism LGBTQIA, with the A standing for asexual, aromantic, commonly grouped together as a-spec along with agender.
Some people have mistakenly claimed the A stands for "ally", but allies are not a marginalized group and mentions of A for ally have regularly sparked controversy as a form of LGBTQ erasure.
Criticism