LGBT

The Rainbow flag is a symbol of LGBTQ rights

"Gay" redirects here; for the English writer and poet, see John Gay.

LGBT or GLBT is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexuality, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the term is an adaptation of the initialism LGB, which was used to replace the term gay in reference to the LGBT community beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s. Activists believed that the term gay community did not accurately represent all those to whom it referred.

LGBT rights are considered human rights by the Amnesty International and civil rights by some.

Contents

Quotes

• We’re at an interesting (and terrible) moment where we’re witnessing attacks on most every gain working people have made for at least the last half century. The curious exception to that has been the advance of marriage and civil rights for gay and lesbian couples in many U.S. states and core imperialist countries. But while we can celebrate the dismantling of many of the legal barriers to equality, we need to be mindful of the cost assimilation has had on "gay" communities, the movement’s relationship to other progressive causes, and lastly how it measures up to radical ideas of gender and sexual freedom.
  • Andrew Sernatinger & Tessa Echeverria, "Queering Socialism," New Politics, November 6, 2013

• The terrorist in Orlando targeted LGBT Americans out of hatred and bigotry, and an attack on any American is an attack on all Americans.
  • Hillary Clinton, speech in Cleveland, Ohio after the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting [1] (June 13, 2016)
• We will defend all our rights – civil rights, human rights and voting rights… women's rights and workers' rights… LGBT rights and the rights of people with disabilities!
  • Hillary Clinton, 2016 Democratic National Convention, transcript by Los Angeles Times (July 28, 2016)

• At the 2008 Lambda Literary Awards (the awards the LGBT community gives to books ignored by straight book awards) not a single lesbian book nominated for best novel was published by a mainstream press. Our literature is disappearing at the same time we are being told we are winning our rights. How can we be equal citizens if our stories are not allowed to be part of our nation's story?
  • Sarah Schulman, The Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Imagination (2012), p. 151

• I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBT citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology.
  • Donald Trump, 2016 Republican National Convention Donald Trump (21 July 2016)

• Our nation stands together in solidarity with the members of Orlando’s LGBT community. They have been through something that nobody could ever experience. This is a very dark moment in America’s history. A radical Islamic terrorist targeted the nightclub, not only because he wanted to kill Americans, but in order to execute gay and lesbian citizens, because of their sexual orientation.
  • Donald Trump, speech after the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting (transcript) (June 13, 2016)

See also

• Sexuality
• Heterosexuality
• Bisexuality
• Homosexuality
• Lesbian sexual practices
• Category:LGBT people
• Category:LGBT-related films
• Queer

References

• Jones, Alan and Kantonen, Jussi (1999), Saturday Night Forever: The Story of Disco, p. 110. Chicago, Illinois: A Cappella Books. ISBN 1556524110.