80-595: The Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses ("GALA Choruses") is an international association of LGBT choruses founded in 1982. In its inaugural performance 14 choruses performed together in September 1982 in San Francisco as part of the first Gay Games . It aims to foster artistic and organizational development within its member choruses. The association includes almost 10,000 vocalists in over 100 associated choruses singing as male, female and mixed ensembles in
160-459: A slur , as well as those who wish to dissociate themselves from queer radicalism , and those who see it as amorphous and trendy. Some younger people feel queer is a more politically charged, more powerful term than LGBT . In a 2018 U.S. study, about 1 in 5 LGBTQ people identified as "queer". SGM , or GSM , an abbreviation for sexual and gender minorities , has gained particular currency in government, academia, and medicine. GSRM
240-456: A tomboy . It is not uncommon for women with a butch appearance to face harassment or violence. A 1990s survey of butches showed that 50% were primarily attracted to femmes, while 25% reported being usually attracted to other butches. Feminist scholar Sally Rowena Munt described butches as "the recognizable public form of lesbianism" and an outlaw figure within lesbian culture. In the novel Stone Butch Blues , author Leslie Feinberg explored
320-466: A "P" for " polyamorous " or " pangender ", an "H" for " HIV-affected ", or an "O" for "other". The initialism LGBTIH 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
400-455: A "TS", "2S", or "2" for " two-spirit " persons; or an "SA" for " straight allies ". The inclusion of straight allies in the LGBT initialism has proven controversial, as many straight allies have been accused of using LGBT advocacy to gain popularity and status in recent years, and various LGBT activists have criticised the heteronormative worldview of certain straight allies. Some may also add
480-473: A "perversion of lesbian identity". Lesbian feminism was publicly represented though white feminism , and often excluded and alienated working class lesbians and lesbians of color. In these excluded communities, butch–femme roles persisted and grew throughout the 1970s. Despite the criticism from both middle-class lesbians and lesbian feminists, butch and femme roles reemerged in the 1980s and 1990s, but were no longer relegated to only working-class lesbians. In
560-463: A "pillow queen," or a "pillow princess." A "stud" is a dominant lesbian in the LGBT community. The term originated with construction and animal breeding , before being associated with promiscuous or attractive men. The word made its way into AAVE through jive in the 1940s. The African-American lesbian community then adopted the word, meaning " masculine African-American lesbian ." Studs tend to be influenced by urban and hip-hop cultures. In
640-409: A butch partner, because they conform to traditional standards of femininity. Because they do not express masculine qualities, femmes were particularly vexing to sexologists and psychoanalysts who wanted to argue that all lesbians wished to be men. Traditionally, the femme in a butch–femme couple was expected to act as a stereotypical feminine woman and provide emotional support for her butch partner. In
720-824: A conflation of maleness with butchness. Halberstam further argues that butch–femme is uniquely geared to work in lesbian relationships. Stereotypes and definitions of butch and femme vary greatly, even within tight-knit LGBTQ communities. Jewelle Gomez mused that butch and femme women in the earlier twentieth century may have been expressing their closeted transgender identity. Antipathy toward female butches and male femmes has been interpreted by some commentators as transphobia , although female butches and male femmes are not always transgender , and indeed some heterosexuals of both genders display these attributes. Scholars such as Judith Butler and Anne Fausto-Sterling suggest that butch and femme are not attempts to take up "traditional" gender roles. Instead, they argue that gender
800-417: A deficiency or a temporary state. Similarly, aromantic individuals lack romantic attraction to others, yet they can still forge profound emotional connections and strong bonds with people without the romantic component. Furthermore, agender individuals either have no gender identity or possess a neutral or genderless gender identity. Some people have mistakenly claimed the A stands for ally, but allies are not
880-493: A derogatory term originating in hate speech and reject it, especially among older members of the community. Many variants of the term LGBT exist, such as the more inclusive LGBT+ 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
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#1732794480941960-450: A marginalized group and mentions of A for ally have regularly sparked controversy as a form of LGBT erasure . The initialisms LGBT or GLBT are not agreed to by everyone that they 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 being transgender or transsexual has to do more with gender identity, or
1040-527: A person's understanding of being or not being a man or a woman irrespective of their sexual orientation. 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, such as same-sex marriage legislation and human rights work (which may not include transgender and intersex people), may be perceived to differ from transgender and transsexual goals. A belief in "lesbian and gay separatism" (not to be confused with
1120-511: A term used primarily in scientific contexts, has at times carried negative connotations in the United States. 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
1200-508: A way of distinguishing themselves from what they regard as white -dominated LGBT communities. In public health settings, MSM (" men who have sex with men ") is clinically used to describe men who have sex with other men without referring to their sexual orientation, with WSW (" women who have sex with women ") also used as an analogous term. MVPFAFF is an abbreviation for Māhū , Vakasalewa , Palopa , Fa'afafine , Akava'ine , Fakaleitī (Leiti), and Fakafifine . This term
1280-643: A wide variety of styles. GALA Choruses produces a large festival every four years, in addition to a number of smaller annual workshops and conferences. Artistic and business directors of the choruses then in existence envisioned both the San Francisco and New York City events at the first planning meeting in Chicago, Illinois (15–17 May 1981) that set the course for the official founding of GALA Choruses. LGBT LGBTQ (also commonly seen as LGBT , LGBT+ , LGBTQ+ , and LGBTQIA+ )
1360-505: Is also the acronym QUILTBAG (queer and questioning, unsure, intersex, lesbian, transgender and two-spirit, bisexual, asexual and aromantic, and gay and genderqueer). Similarly LGBTIQA+ stands for "lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer/questioning, asexual and many other terms (such as non-binary and pansexual)". In Canada , the community is sometimes identified as LGBTQ2 (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and two spirit). Depending on which organization
1440-719: Is also used to include romantic minorities such as aromanticism . In New Zealand, New Zealand Human Rights Commission uses "Rights of Sexual and Gender Minorities" to discuss LGBT rights. In India, the Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court of India , when decriminalizing homosexuality in the case of Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India (2018) , said: Individuals belonging to sexual and gender minorities experience discrimination, stigmatization, and, in some cases, denial of care on account of their sexual orientation and gender identity. However, it
1520-503: Is an initialism for lesbian , gay , bisexual , transgender and queer or questioning . It is an umbrella term , broadly referring to all sexualities , romantic orientations , and gender identities which are not heterosexual , heteroromantic , or cisgender . In the 1990s, gay, lesbian, and bisexual activists adopted the term LGB , supplanting narrower terms such as "gay or lesbian". Terminology eventually shifted to LGBT , as transgender people became more accepted within
1600-554: Is important to note that 'sexual and gender minorities' do not constitute a homogenous group, and experiences of social exclusion, marginalization, and discrimination, as well as specific health needs, vary considerably. Nevertheless, these individuals are united by one factor - that their exclusion, discrimination and marginalization is rooted in societal heteronormativity and society's pervasive bias towards gender binary and opposite-gender relationships, which marginalizes and excludes all non-heteronormative sexual and gender identities. In
1680-528: Is inclusive of "those who may not self-identify as LGBT ... or those who have a specific medical condition affecting reproductive development". A publication from the White House Office of Management and Budget states, "We believe that SGM is more inclusive, because it includes persons not specifically referenced by the identities listed in LGBT." A UK government paper favors SGM because initials like LGBTIQ+ stand for terms that, especially outside
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#17327944809411760-449: Is intended as a term encompassing all sexual- and gender-minorities. For some indigenous people , two-spirit invokes a combination of identities, including sexual, gender, cultural, and spiritual. Some people advocate the term "minority sexual and gender identities" (MSGI, coined in 2000) for the purpose of explicitly including all people who are not cisgender and heterosexual or "gender, sexual, and romantic minorities" (GSRM), which
1840-732: Is known that butch–femme dress codes date back at least to the beginning of the 20th century as photographs from 1900–1920 exist of butch–femme couples in the United States; they were at the time called "transvestites". However, according to the Routledge International Encyclopaedia of Women , although upper-class women like Radclyffe Hall and her lover Una Troubridge lived together in unions that resembled butch–femme relationships, "The term butch/femme would have been categorically inconsequential, however, and incomprehensible to these women." Butch and femme lesbian genders were only starting to become apparent in
1920-416: Is more explicitly inclusive of minority romantic orientations , but those have not been widely adopted either. Other rare umbrella terms are Gender and Sexual Diversities (GSD), MOGII (Marginalized Orientations, Gender Identities, and Intersex) and MOGAI (Marginalized Orientations, Gender Alignments and Intersex). SGL ( same gender loving ) is sometimes favored among gay male African Americans as
2000-446: Is socially and historically constructed, rather than essential, "natural", or biological. The femme lesbian historian Joan Nestle argues that femme and butch may be seen as distinct genders in and of themselves. "Butch" can be used as an adjective or a noun to describe an individual's gender performance . The term butch tends to denote a degree of masculinity displayed by a female individual beyond what would be considered typical of
2080-454: Is typically used by younger LGBT women. Defining the difference between a butch and a boi, one boi told a reporter: "that sense of play – that's a big difference from being a butch. To me, butch is like an adult...You're the man of the house." Comedian Elvira Kurt contributed the term "fellagirly" as a description for LGBT women who are not strictly either femme or butch, but a combination. Those who identify as butch and femme today often use
2160-679: Is using the abbreviation, the choice of initialism changes. Businesses and the CBC often simply employ LGBT as a proxy for any longer abbreviation, private activist groups often employ LGBTQ+ , whereas public health providers favour the more inclusive LGBT2Q+ to accommodate twin spirited indigenous peoples . For a time, the Pride Toronto organization used the much lengthier initialism LGBTTIQQ2SA , but appears to have dropped this in favour of simpler wording. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
2240-672: The Global North , are "not necessarily inclusive of local understandings and terms used to describe sexual and gender minorities". An example of usage outside the Global North is the Constitution of Nepal , which identifies "gender and sexual minorities" as a protected class. In Canada especially, the term 2SLGBTQ+ is seen, with the first two characters standing for two-spirit ; the whole term stands for two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer and questioning, and
2320-490: 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 LGBTQWERTY , LGBTQXYZ , and alphabet mafia . The implication that
2400-537: The New York City lesbian community, a butch may identify herself as AG (aggressive) or as a stud. In 2005, filmmaker Daniel Peddle chronicled the lives of AGs in his documentary The Aggressives , following six women who went to lengths like binding their breasts to pass as men. But Peddle says that today, very young lesbians of color in New York are creating a new, insular scene that is largely cut off from
2480-446: 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. 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
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2560-431: The lesbian subculture that have associated traits, behaviors, styles, self-perception, and so on. This concept has been called a "way to organize sexual relationships and gender and sexual identity". Butch – femme culture is not the sole form of a lesbian dyadic system, as there are many women in butch–butch and femme–femme relationships. Both the expression of individual lesbians of butch and femme identities and
2640-528: The 1940s, since it started to become common to allow women to enter bars without men. In the 1940s in the U.S., most butch women had to wear conventionally feminine dress in order to hold down jobs, donning their starched shirts and ties only on weekends to go to bars or parties as "Saturday night" butches. Butches had to take a subtle approach to butchness in order to exist in society. They created outfits that were outwardly accepted by society, but allowed those who were butch to still present as more masculine than
2720-619: The 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City , some gays and lesbians became less accepting of bisexual or transgender people. 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
2800-591: The 1990s in the United States showed that "95% of lesbians are familiar with butch/femme codes and can rate themselves or others in terms of those codes, and yet the same percentage feels that butch/femme was 'unimportant in their lives ' ". The word femme is taken from the French word for woman. The word butch , meaning "masculine", may have been coined by abbreviating the word butcher , as first noted in George Cassidy's nickname, Butch Cassidy . However,
2880-474: The 21st century, some writers and commentators began to describe a phenomenon in the lesbian community called "The Disappearing Butch". Some felt butches were disappearing because it had become easier for masculine women who might have previously identified as butch to have sex reassignment surgery and live as men. Others claimed the Disappearing Butch was the result of lesbian 'commodification' in
2960-703: The LGBT category to create an LGBTI community. Some intersex people prefer the initialism LGBTI , while others would rather that they not be included as part of the term. Emi Koyama describes how inclusion of intersex in LGBTI can fail to address intersex-specific human rights issues, including creating false impressions "that intersex people's rights are protected" by laws protecting LGBT people, and failing to acknowledge that many intersex people are not LGBT. Organisation Intersex International Australia states that some intersex individuals are same-sex attracted, and some are heterosexual, but "LGBTI activism has fought for
3040-401: The T. The campaign has been condemned by many LGBT groups as transphobic . Many have expressed desire for an umbrella term to replace existing initialisms. Queer gained popularity as an umbrella-term for sexual and gender minorities in the 21st century. The term remains controversial, particularly among older LGBT people, who perceive it as offensive due to its historical usage as
3120-714: The US, the term "Sexual and Gender Minority" has been adopted by the National Institutes of Health , the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the UCLA Williams Institute , which studies SGM law and policy. Duke University and the University of California San Francisco both have prominent sexual and gender minority health programs. An NIH paper recommends the term SGM because it
3200-885: The acronym. Many further variants exist which add additional identities, such as LGBTQIA+ (for intersex , asexual , aromantic , and agender ) and 2SLGBTQ+ (for two-spirit ), LGBTQQ (for queer and questioning), or which order the letters differently, as in GLBT and GLBTQ . The collective of all LGBTQ people is often called the LGBTQ 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). The first widely used term, homosexual , now
3280-465: The anti-gay politics of the McCarthy era , led to an increase in violent attacks on gay and bisexual women, while at the same time the increasingly strong and defiant bar culture became more willing to respond with force. Although femmes also fought back, it became primarily the role of butches to defend against attacks and hold the bars as gay women's space. While in the '40s, the prevailing butch image
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3360-607: The butch a known subject of desire. The separatist feminist movement of the late 1960s and 1970s forced butches and femmes underground, as radical lesbian feminists found lesbian gender roles to be a disappointing and oppressive replication of heterosexual lifestyle. However, the 1980s saw a resurgence of butch and femme gender roles. In this new configuration of butch and femme, it was acceptable, even desirable, to have femme–femme sexual and romantic pairings. Femmes gained value as their own lesbian gender, making it possible to exist separately from butches. For example, Susie Bright ,
3440-434: 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 . Asexual individuals experience minimal to no sexual attraction to others, and it is crucial to acknowledge that asexuality is a legitimate sexual orientation, not
3520-432: The emergence of androgyny in lesbian feminist circles, with many women wearing clothing like T-shirts, jeans, flannels, and boots. This dress was very similar to butch dress, weakening a key identifier of butch lesbians. While butch–femme roles had previously been the primary way of identifying lesbians and quantifying lesbian relationships in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, lesbian feminist ideology had turned these roles into
3600-543: The exact origin of the word is still unknown. Butch artist Daddy Rhon Drinkwater created a symbol of a black triangle intersecting a red circle to represent butch/femme "passion and love". The symbol was first used on their website Butch-Femme.com (the website is now defunct). There is debate about to whom the terms butch and femme can apply, and particularly whether transgender individuals can be identified in this way. For example, Jack Halberstam argues that transgender men cannot be considered butch, since it constitutes
3680-585: The existence or right to equality of bisexual orientations and of transsexuality, sometimes leading to public biphobia and transphobia . In contrasts to separatists, Peter Tatchell of the LGBT human rights group OutRage! argues that to separate the transgender movement from the LGB would be "political madness", stating that: Queers are, like transgender people, gender deviant. We don't conform to traditional heterosexist assumptions of male and female behaviour, in that we have sexual and emotional relationships with
3760-498: The first half of the twentieth century, when butch–femme gender roles were constrained to the underground bar scene, femmes were considered invisible without a butch partner – that is, they could pass as straight because of their gender conformity . However, Joan Nestle asserts that femmes in a butch–femme couple make both the butch and the femme exceedingly visible. By daring to be publicly attracted to butch women, femmes reflected their own sexual difference and made
3840-402: The founder of On Our Backs , the first lesbian sex periodical of its kind, identifies as femme. Beyond depictions in pornography, the neo-butch and neo-femme aesthetic in day-to-day life helped add a sense of visual identity to lesbians who had abandoned these roles in the name of political correctness. In "Negotiating Dyke Femininity," lesbian scholar Wendy Somerson explains that women in
3920-583: The gender identities of the sexual subcultures who use them. The meanings of these terms vary and can evolve over time. Some members of the lesbian community eschew butch or femme classifications, believing that they are inadequate to describe an individual, or that labels are limiting in and of themselves. Prior to the middle of the 20th century in Western culture, homosexual societies were mostly underground or secret, making it difficult to determine how long butch and femme roles have been practiced by women. It
4000-450: The initialism refers to a single community is also controversial. Although identical in meaning, LGBT may have a more feminist connotation than GLBT as it places the "L" (for "lesbian") first. 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 LGBTQQ . The order of
4080-430: The invisibility their presentation creates and assert their sexuality through their femininity. The dismissal of femmes as illegitimate or invisible also happens within the LGBT community itself, which creates the push for femmes to self-advocate as an empowered identity not inherently tied to butches. The term "kiki" came into existence in the 1940s to describe a lesbian who did not identify as either butch or femme, and
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#17327944809414160-613: The issue since the movement began. From about 1988, activists began to use the initialism LGBT in the United States. Not until the 1990s within the movement did gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people gain equal respect. 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
4240-467: The larger LGBT community), the term LGBT has been a positive symbol of inclusion . Beginning in the 1990s, the term queer was beginning to be adopted by the community to support gay-pride and reclaim the term from its earlier pejorative use as scholars have shown. The field of study of the LGBTQ community is called queer studies , in recognition of this reclamation and used as an umbrella term for
4320-432: The lesbian community who are more feminine and do not fit into the "butch" stereotype can pass as straight. She believes the link between appearance and gender performance and one's sexuality should be disrupted, because the way someone looks should not define their sexuality. In her article, Somerson also clearly talks about how within the lesbian community some are considered more masculine than others. Femmes still combat
4400-413: 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 ( להט"ב ) 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
4480-504: The media, influenced by the viewing public's desire to see lesbians as "reproductions of Hollywood straight women". One writer noted that in the increased drive for LGBT 'normalization' and political acceptance, butch lesbians and effeminate gay men seemed to be disappearing. In the 21st century, some younger people were also beginning to eschew labels like 'butch' or even 'lesbian' and identify instead as queer .' However, others noted that butch women have gained increased visibility in
4560-590: The media, mentioning Ellen DeGeneres , frequently referred to as 'a soft butch', political commentator Rachel Maddow , once described as a 'butch fatale' and the character Big Boo in Orange Is the New Black , played by butch comic and actress Lea de Laria . The 21st century also saw a re-examination of the meaning of 'femme', with the term being used in a broader and more politically charged way, particularly by women of color, and some critics challenging what
4640-628: The mid-20th century, it was particularly prominent in the working-class lesbian bar culture of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, where butch–femme was the norm, while butch–butch and femme–femme relationships were taboo. Those who switched roles were called ki-ki , a pejorative term, and they were often the butt of jokes. In the 1950s, in an early piece of lesbian studies , the gay rights campaigning organisation ONE, Inc. assigned Stella Rush to study "the butch/femme phenomenon" in gay bars. Rush reported that women held strong opinions, that "role distinctions needed to be sharply drawn," and that not being one or
4720-444: The movement. 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. Some versions of the term, such as LGBT+ and LGBTQ+ add a plus sign , to represent additional identities not captured within
4800-412: The myth that being gay/lesbian/bi/asexual/pansexual/etc. 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
4880-483: The norm- Alix Genter states that "butches wore long, pleated skirts with their man-tailored shirts, sometimes with a vest or coat on top" at Bay Ridge High school. The 1950s saw the rise of a new generation of butches who refused to live double lives and wore butch attire full-time, or as close to full-time as possible. This usually limited them to a few jobs, such as factory work and cab driving, that had no dress codes for women. Their increased visibility, combined with
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#17327944809414960-502: The other earned strong disapproval from both groups. It has been noted that, at least in part, kiki women were unwelcome where lesbians gathered because their apparent lack of understanding of the butch–femme dress code might indicate that they were policewomen. In contrast to ONE, Inc. studies, more conservative homophile organizations of the 1950s, such as the Daughters of Bilitis , discouraged butch–femme roles and identities. This
5040-400: 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 ";
5120-410: The related " lesbian separatism ") 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 in sufficient numbers or organization to be called a movement , separatists are a significant, vocal, and active element within many parts of the LGBT community. In some cases separatists will deny
5200-429: The relationship of the lesbian community in general to the notion of butch and femme as an organizing principle for sexual relations varied over the course of the 20th century. Some lesbian feminists have argued that butch–femme is a replication of heterosexual relations, while other commentators argue that, while it resonates with heterosexual patterns of relating, butch–femme simultaneously challenges it. Research in
5280-617: The rest of the gay and lesbian community: "A lot of it has to do with this kind of pressure to articulate and express your masculinity within the confines of the hip-hop paradigm." Black lesbian filmmaker Dee Rees represented the AG culture in her 2011 film Pariah . There is also an emerging usage of the terms soft butch , "stem" (stud-femme), "futch" (feminine butch), or "chapstick lesbian" as terms for women who have characteristics of both butch and femme. Lesbians who are neither butch nor femme are called "androgynous" or "andros." The term boi
5360-493: The right to live one's life differently from the majority. In the 1996 book Anti-Gay , a collection of essays edited by Mark Simpson , the concept of a 'one-size-fits-all' identity based on LGBT stereotypes is criticized for suppressing the individuality of LGBT people. Writing in the BBC News Magazine in 2014, Julie Bindel questions whether the various gender groupings now, "bracketed together[,] ... share
5440-772: The rights of people who fall outside of expected binary sex and gender norms". Julius Kaggwa of SIPD Uganda has written that, while the gay community "offers us a place of relative safety, it is also oblivious to our specific needs". Numerous studies have shown higher rates of same-sex attraction in intersex people, with a recent Australian study of people born with atypical sex characteristics finding that 52% of respondents were non-heterosexual; thus, research on intersex subjects has been used to explore means of preventing homosexuality. As an experience of being born with sex characteristics that do not fit social norms, intersex can be distinguished from transgender, while some intersex people are both intersex and transgender. In
5520-430: The same issues, values and goals?" Bindel refers to a number of possible new initialisms for differing combinations and concludes that it may be time for the alliances to either be reformed or go their "separate ways". In 2015, the slogan " Drop the T " was coined to encourage LGBT organizations to stop support of transgender people as they say that sexual orientation, LGB, does not share similarity with gender identity,
5600-523: The same sex. We should celebrate our discordance with mainstream straight norms. The portrayal of an all-encompassing "LGBT community" or "LGB community" is also disliked by some lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. 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 LGBT pride marches and events. Some of them believe that grouping together people with non-heterosexual orientations perpetuates
5680-402: The term transsexual commonly falls under the umbrella term transgender , but some transsexual people object to this. Those who add intersex people to LGBT groups or organizations may use the extended initialism LGBTI , or LGBTIQ . The relationship of intersex to lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans, and queer communities is complex, but intersex people are often added to
5760-466: The wider community as the academic response to the Stonewall riots. The acronym LGBT eventually evolved to LGBTQ in recognition of the community's reclamation of the term. 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
5840-406: The words to define their presentation and gender identity rather than strictly the role they play in a relationship, and in a departure from the historic norm, not all butches are attracted exclusively to femmes and not all femmes are exclusively attracted to butches. Besides the terms "butch" and "femme," there are a number of other terms used to describe the dress codes, the sexual behaviours, and/or
5920-483: The working-class roots in America and the concept of transmasculine and stone butches . A stone butch is a " top " who does not want to be touched during sex. BUTCH Voices, a national conference for "individuals who are masculine of center ," including gender variant , was founded in 2008. Like the term "butch," femme can be used as an adjective or a noun. Femmes are not "read" as lesbians unless they are with
6000-747: Was also criticized for using the 2SLGBTQQIA+ initialism. As of July 2023, the Government of Canada's official term is 2SLGBTQI+ . Trudeau's new acronym was criticized by some social media users. 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, transvestite, genderqueer, genderfluid , non-binary , genderfuck , genderless, agender, non-gendered, third gender, two-spirit, bigender , and trans man and trans woman. Likewise,
6080-536: Was developed by Phylesha Brown-Acton in 2010 at the Asia Pacific Games Human Rights Conference. This refers to those in the rainbow Pacific Islander community, who may or may not identify with the LGBT initialism. Butch and femme Butch and femme ( / f ɛ m / ; French: [fam] ; from French femme 'woman') are masculine (butch) or feminine (femme) identities in
6160-668: Was especially true in relation to the butch identity, as the organization held the belief that assimilation into heterosexual society was the goal of the homophile movement. Gender expressions outside of the norm prevented assimilation. In the 1970s, the development of lesbian feminism pushed butch–femme roles out of popularity. Lesbian separatists such as Sheila Jeffreys argued that all forms of masculinity, including masculine butch women, were negative and harmful to women. The group of radical lesbians often credited with sparking lesbian feminism, Radicalesbians , called butch culture "male-identified role-playing among lesbians". This encouraged
6240-500: 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. Lesbians who held
6320-418: Was severe but gentle, it became increasingly tough and aggressive as violent confrontation became a fact of life. In 1992, a "groundbreaking" anthology about the butch–femme socialization that took place in working class bars of the 40s and 50s was published— The Persistent Desire: A Femme–Butch Reader , edited by femme Joan Nestle . Although butch–femme was not the only organizing principle among lesbians in
6400-408: Was used disparagingly. Labels have been tailored to be more descriptive of an individual's characteristics, such as "hard butch," "gym queen," "tomboy femme," and "soft stud." " Lipstick lesbians " are feminine lesbians. A butch woman may be described as a " dyke ," "stone butch," "diesel dyke," "bulldyke," "bull bitch," or "bulldagger." A woman who likes to receive and not give sexually is called
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