LGBTQ community
The LGBTQ community or queer community comprises LGBTQ individuals united by a common culture and social movements. These communities generally celebrate pride, diversity, individuality, and sexuality. LGBTQ rights activists and sociologists see LGBTQ community-building as a counterweight to heterosexism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, sexualism, and conformist pressures that exist in the larger society.
The term pride or sometimes gay pride expresses the LGBTQ community's identity and collective strength; pride parades provide both a prime example of the use and a demonstration of the general meaning of the term. The LGBTQ community is diverse in political affiliation. Not all LGBTQ people consider themselves part of the LGBTQ community.
Groups that may be considered part of the LGBTQ community include gay villages, LGBTQ rights organizations, LGBTQ employee groups at companies, LGBTQ student groups in schools and universities, and LGBTQ-affirming religious groups.
LGBTQ communities may organize themselves into, or support, movements for civil rights promoting LGBTQ rights in various places around the world. At the same time, high-profile celebrities in the broader society may offer strong support to these organizations in certain locations; for example, LGBTQ advocate and entertainer Madonna stated, "I was asked to perform at many Pride events around the world — but I would never, ever turn down New York City".
Terminology
LGBT, or GLBT, is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the term is an adaptation of the initialism LGB, which was used to replace the term gay – when referring to the community as a whole – beginning in various forms largely in the early 1990s. Terms, such as LGBTQ, are needed to foster inclusiveness for people in the community. The term LGBTQ is an umbrella term, especially crucial as the amount of terms continue to rise.While the movement had always included all LGBTQ people, the one-word unifying term in the 1950s through the early 1980s was gay. Throughout the 1970s and '80s, a number of groups with lesbian members, and pro-feminist politics, preferred the more representative, lesbian and gay. By the early nineties, as more groups shifted to names based on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, queer was also increasingly reclaimed as a one-word alternative to the ever-lengthening string of initials, especially when used by radical political groups, some of which had been using "queer" since the '80s.
The initialism, as well as common variants such as LGBTQ, have been adopted into the mainstream in the 1990s as an umbrella term for use when labeling topics about sexuality and gender identity. For example, the LGBT Movement Advancement Project termed community centers, which have services specific to those members of the LGBT community, as "LGBT community centers" in comprehensive studies of such centers around the United States.
The initialism LGBT is intended to emphasize a diversity of sexuality and gender identity-based cultures. It may refer to anyone who is non-heterosexual or non-cisgender, instead of exclusively to people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. Recognize this inclusion as a popular variant that adds the letter Q for those who identify as queer or are questioning their sexual identity; LGBTQ has been recorded since 1996.
Disagreement between what precise wording is best is still present in 2023. Some propose adding more letters to make the participation of those groups explicit. Detractors of this approach argue that adding letters implicitly excludes others or makes for worse branding.
Terminology has changed due to the changes in gender. The introduction of new terms to encompass new concepts has been the cause the creation of new terms. These changes in terminology can lead to difficulties in building educationally libraries making it harder for people to reach valuable information.
Symbols
The gay community is frequently associated with certain symbols, especially the rainbow or rainbow flags. The Greek lambda symbol, triangles, ribbons, and gender symbols are also used as "gay acceptance" symbol. There are many types of flags to represent subdivisions in the gay community, but the most commonly recognized one is the rainbow flag. According to Gilbert Baker, creator of the commonly known rainbow flag, each color represents a value in the community:- pink = sexuality
- red = life
- orange = healing
- yellow = the sun
- green = nature
- blue = art
- indigo = harmony
- violet = spirit
The lambda symbol was originally adopted by Gay Activists Alliance of New York in 1970 after they broke away from the larger Gay Liberation Front. Lambda was chosen because people might confuse it for a college symbol and not recognize it as a gay community symbol unless one was actually involved in the community. "Back in December of 1974, the lambda was officially declared the international symbol for gay and lesbian rights by the International Gay Rights Congress in Edinburgh, Scotland."
The triangle became a symbol for the gay community after the Holocaust. Not only did it represent Jews, but homosexuals who were killed because of German law. During the Holocaust, homosexuals were labeled with pink triangles to distinguish between them, Jews, regular prisoners, and political prisoners. The black triangle is similarly a symbol for females only to represent lesbian sisterhood.
The pink and yellow triangle was used to label Jewish homosexuals. Gender symbols have a much longer list of variations of homosexual or bisexual relationships which are clearly recognizable but may not be as popularly seen as the other symbols. Other symbols that relate to the gay community or gay pride include the gay-teen suicide awareness ribbon, AIDS awareness ribbon, labrys, and purple rhinoceros.
In the fall of 1995, the Human Rights Campaign adopted a logo that has become one of the most recognizable symbols of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. The logo can be spotted the world over and has become synonymous with the fight for equal rights for LGBTQ people.
One of the most notable recent changes was made in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 8, 2017. They added two new stripes to the rainbow flag, one black and one brown. These were intended to highlight members of color within the LGBTQ community.
Demographics
In a 2012 survey, younger Americans are more likely to identify as gay. Statistics decrease with age, as adults between ages 18–29 are three times more likely to identify as LGBTQ than seniors older than 65. These statistics for the LGBTQ community are taken into account just as they are with other demographics to find trend patterns for specific products. Consumers who identify as LGBTQ are more likely to regularly engage in various activities as opposed to those who identify as heterosexual. According to Community Marketing, Inc., 90 percent of lesbians and 88 percent of gay men will dine out with friends regularly. And similarly, 31 percent of lesbians and 50 percent of gay men will visit a club or a bar.The likelihood of LGBTQ women having children at home as non-LGBTQ women is equal. LGBTQ men are half as likely when compared with non-LGBTQ men to have children at home. In 2012, household incomes for sixteen percent of LGBTQ Americans ranged above $90,000 per year, in comparison with 21 percent of the overall adult population. Those who identify as LGBTQ have fewer children collectively in comparison to heterosexual partners. LGBTQ populations of color face income barriers along with the rest of the race issues, earn less and are not as affluent.
In 2014, the metropolitan areas with the highest percentage of LGBTQ community was San Francisco, California. The next highest were Portland, Oregon, and Austin, Texas.
A 2019 survey of the Two-Spirit and LGBTQ+ population in the Canadian city of Hamilton, Ontario, called Mapping the Void: Two-Spirit and LGBTQ+ Experiences in Hamilton showed that out of 906 respondents, when it came to sexual orientation, 48.9% identified as bisexual/pansexual, 21.6% identified as gay, 18.3% identified as lesbian, 4.9% identified as queer, and 6.3% identified as other.
A 2019 survey of trans and non-binary people in Canada called Trans PULSE Canada showed that out of 2,873 respondents. When it came to sexual orientation, 13% identified as asexual, 28% identified as bisexual, 13% identified as gay, 15% identified as lesbian, 31% identified as pansexual, 8% identified as straight or heterosexual, 4% identified as two-spirit, and 9% identified as unsure or questioning.
A 2021 Gallup survey, found that 7.1% of U.S. adults identify as "lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or something other than straight or heterosexual".
Discrimination
People in the LGBTQ community face discrimination in form of microaggressions. Microaggressions are usually statements that are indirect and sometimes incidental but carry a negative connotation. In LGBTQ youths the most common type of microaggression they encounter are political remarks such as dissing samesex rights. The second most common form of microaggression is expression stereotype about the LGBTQ community. Microaggression are common and often experiences in everyday life. Safe spaces such as school can have a big impact on the occurrence of microaggressions. These include the constant homophobic remarks such a as "gay", homophobic graffiti, Gay-Straight alliance graffiti, etc.Through there has been increasing acceptance of the LGBTQ community there are still many areas of life, such as sports, where discrimination is prominent.