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William Way LGBT Community Center

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The William Way LGBT Community Center is a nonprofit organization serving the lesbian , gay , bisexual and transgender population of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and nearby communities, located at 1315 Spruce Street in Philadelphia in the Gayborhood .

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56-822: Chris Bartlett has been the center's executive director since 2010. This community center was founded in 1975 as the Gay Community Center of Philadelphia. Organizers purchased its current building at 1315 Spruce Street in 1997; the center has owned it since local businessman Mel Heifetz paid off its mortgage in 2005. The western wall of the community center features Ann Northrup's block-long mural, "Pride and Progress", with images of LGBT citizens who have contributed to Philadelphia's cultural and intellectual life throughout history. The center's programs include an extensive library, and programs in peer counseling, senior services, education, and arts and culture. The center also offers numerous twelve-step meetings throughout

112-459: 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

168-466: 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

224-455: 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

280-417: 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

336-493: 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

392-731: A grant from the Arcus Foundation to create the LGBT Leadership Initiative, a convening of thinkers in the United States about the strategic leadership needs of LGBT communities in the United States. His leadership interests include intergenerational communication and connection, as well as mentorship of younger leaders. In the November, 2008 Instinct Magazine he was named one of the "Leading Men of 2008." He has created an on-line Wiki to document

448-594: A leader in the effort to build housing that is friendly for LGBT seniors. In 2013 under Bartlett's leadership the community center has received grants to fund the nation's first LGBT Jazz Festival (2014) and a city-wide exploration of LGBT history in Philadelphia (2015) His writings include " Levity and Gravity ", in Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore's < Why are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots: Flaming Challenges To Masculinity, Objectification and

504-450: 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

560-527: 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

616-448: 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

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672-508: 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

728-505: 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

784-719: 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

840-401: 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

896-743: Is an American gay activist, feminist , educator, and researcher who lives in Philadelphia , PA, and is the executive director of the William Way Community Center . Bartlett grew up in Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Classics from Brown University in 1988 and a second Bachelor of Arts in Literae Humaniores from New College, Oxford in 1991. He

952-554: 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

1008-528: 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

1064-449: 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

1120-416: 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

1176-755: Is one of the most important collections of LGBTQ documents and artifacts in the United States. Along with researchers from the ONE Archives in Los Angeles , archivists from the John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives have been searching for unidentified men photographed at a gay wedding held in 1957. The search, which began in 2013 and is still ongoing, was covered in both LGBT and mainstream press. 39°56′51″N 75°09′48″W  /  39.94737°N 75.16334°W  / 39.94737; -75.16334 Chris Bartlett (activist) Chris Bartlett (born March 29, 1966)

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1232-679: 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

1288-672: 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

1344-490: 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

1400-753: The TEDx conferences in Philadelphia on November 18, 2010, and November 8, 2011. In 2014, he presented his own TEDxPhilly talk, "How To Make the Neighborhood You Want", which shows the city planning lessons that Philadelphia's Chinatown has for its Gay neighborhood. He is a member of the Philadelphia circle of Radical Faeries . During his tenure at the William Way LGBT Community Center , he has focused on community building through arts and culture, technological innovation, and intergenerational approaches. He has been

1456-446: 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

1512-681: 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

1568-713: The Desire to Conform Archived 2013-10-17 at the Wayback Machine >; and "Choosing Faerie" in Mark Thompson's The Fire in Moonlight: Stories from the Radical Faeries: 1975-2010 . LGBT LGBTQ (also commonly seen as LGBT , LGBT+ , LGBTQ+ , and LGBTQIA+ ) is an initialism for lesbian , gay , bisexual , transgender and queer or questioning . It

1624-672: The Gay Men's Health Leadership Academy, a national center for excellence for leadership development of gay and bisexual men and their allies based at the White Crane Institute. The academy hosts biannual retreats on the East Coast (Greenwich, NY) and the West Coast ( Guerneville, CA ) of the United States, and also works with organizations and governments to strengthen their cadres of gay leadership. Since Rofes' death,

1680-703: 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

1736-401: 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

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1792-714: 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

1848-632: The Warning Gay Men's Health Summit in Paris , France , in 2005. His work has shown a continuing interest in participatory democracy , starting with his early participation in ACT UP Philadelphia . His current work focuses on the role of social media , including Twitter , Facebook , and other tools in developing on-line communities that can participate in effective social change. Out of his engagement in social media work, he hosted

1904-885: 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

1960-524: The day and night, and opened the Arcila-Adams Trans Resource Center in 2019 to centralize resources for trans people in Philadelphia. In 2021, the center collaborated with HIV/AIDS healthcare provider Philadelphia FIGHT to provide COVID-19 vaccines to LGBTQ people in Philadelphia. The center houses the John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives, which collects and preserves local and regional LGBT documents and artifacts. The archive

2016-457: The deaths of gay men from AIDS between 1981 and the present. The site acts as an on-line AIDS quilt, on which community members and families can document the lives of their friends and loved ones. Bartlett is also a long-time leader in the Gay Men's Health Movement, both nationally and internationally. He has participated in each of the Gay Men's Health Summits and LGBTI Health Summits as an organizer and presenter, as well as presenting at

2072-434: 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

2128-585: 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

2184-450: 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

2240-613: 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

2296-467: 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

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2352-413: 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

2408-444: 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

2464-412: 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

2520-400: 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 ";

2576-673: The program has been co-facilitated by Kevin Trimell Jones of Philadelphia, PA; Fred Lopez of San Francisco, CA; Scott Pegues of Denver, CO; and Kaijson Noilmar of Seattle, WA. In 2005, under the leadership of Michael S. Hinson Jr. , he directed the LGBT Community Assessment, an assessment of the broad health related needs of LGBT populations in the Philadelphia region. The City of Philadelphia and Philadelphia Foundation subsequently funded an LGBT Youth Assessment, which he also directed. In 2008, Bartlett received

2632-410: 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

2688-493: 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

2744-772: 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

2800-430: 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,

2856-523: 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

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2912-402: 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

2968-466: 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

3024-747: 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,

3080-551: Was director of the SafeGuards Gay Men's Health Project in Philadelphia from 1991 to 2001, where he developed innovative programs addressing the broader health needs of gay and bisexual men beyond HIV and AIDS. In his early research, he directed a survey of over 1400 gay and bisexual men in the Philadelphia region in order to assess their risk for HIV , STDs and other health challenges. In 2003, Bartlett joined forces with gay activist Eric Rofes to create

3136-500: 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

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