Defns | The Office of Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr, Queer, and Intersex Life | Vanrbilt Universy

Contents:

• ABOUT THE CENTERSCE 1983 THE CENTER HAS BEEN SUPPORTG, FOSTERG AND CELEBRATG THE LGBT MUNY OF NEW YORK CY. FD MORE RMATN ON AND OUR WORK ABOUT THE CENTER. VIS ABOUT THE CENTEROUR MISSNCYBER CENTERCENTER HISTORYRACE EQUYMEDIA CENTERLEARSHIP & STAFFEMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNICORPORATE PARTNERSHIPSANNUAL REPORTS & FANCIAL INFORMATNCONTACT USHOURS & LOTNSEMAPSUPPORT THE CENTER
• LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENR, QUEER, & INTERSEX LIFE
• LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENR – WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?
• UNRSTANDG GAY & LBIAN INTI
• QUEER VS. GAY: HOW THE WORDS ARE DIFFERENT, AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
• IS A LBIAN, GAY OR BISEXUAL INTY MORE COMMON TODAY?
• THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS
• HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR?
• LBIANS MORE ACCEPTED THAN GAY MEN AROUND THE WORLD, STUDY FDS
• 3 DIFFERENC BETWEEN THE TERMS ‘GAY’ AND ‘QUEER’ — AND WHY IT MATTERS

ABOUT THE CENTERSCE 1983 THE CENTER HAS BEEN SUPPORTG, FOSTERG AND CELEBRATG THE LGBT MUNY OF NEW YORK CY. FD MORE RMATN ON AND OUR WORK ABOUT THE CENTER. VIS ABOUT THE CENTEROUR MISSNCYBER CENTERCENTER HISTORYRACE EQUYMEDIA CENTERLEARSHIP & STAFFEMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNICORPORATE PARTNERSHIPSANNUAL REPORTS & FANCIAL INFORMATNCONTACT USHOURS & LOTNSEMAPSUPPORT THE CENTER

GAY: Used some cultural settgs to reprent men who are attracted to men a romantic, erotic and/or emotnal sense. LGBTQ2S+ ALLY: Someone who nonts heterosexism, anti- LGBTQ2S+ bias, heterosexual and cisgenr privilege themselv and others; believ that heterosexism, homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia are social jtice issu.

Not bee they are bad, or homophobic, or transphobic… but bee the reali are not their own lived experience, or bee workg alongsi the groups may be a newer experience for them. LGBTQ: The first four letters of this standard abbreviatn are fairly straightforward: “Lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr.

Queer: Once nsired a meang slur for beg gay, “queer” is beg reclaimed by some as a self-affirmg umbrella term, pecially among those who nsir other labels rtrictive. Some still believe ’s a homophobic slur, so ’s always bt to ask or wa for the person whom you’re speakg wh to e . Lbian: A noun and an adjective for women who are attracted to other women, although some women prefer to be lled gay or queer – ’s always bt to ask!

LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENR, QUEER, & INTERSEX LIFE

Gay: An adjective and not a noun, most often ed to scribe men who are attracted to other men (except the aforementned s). Gay is an adjective that scribe people who are physilly, romantilly, emotnally and/or spirually attracted to other people of the same genr.

Although n sometim seem like one type of gay person is shown over and over aga the media or on TV, gay people aren’t tomatilly effemate, and lbian women aren’t tomatilly mascule – fact, those stereotyp leave out a lot of other personali and characteristics.

LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENR – WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

Gay and lbian people are unique dividuals, jt like everyone else, and n exprs themselv an fe number of ways!

While there may be some jobs that tend to have more gay or lbian people them than others, often has to do wh the cultural acceptance they might fd that particular field. However, sce marriage is still illegal for same-sex upl many stat, gay and lbian relatnships have ls support om society. Advot for Youth – I Thk I Might Be LbianAdvot for Youth – I Thk I Might Be GayPFLAG – Be YourselfPlanned Parenthood – Sexual Orientatn.

UNRSTANDG GAY & LBIAN INTI

? SummaryIn the ntext of LGBTQ+ inty, the word gay is typilly ed reference to a person who is sexually and/or romantilly attracted to people of their own sex or genr. Some people may intify as both gay and queer, though others may e only one of the terms or a different term altogether. In this article, we will expla how the terms gay and queer are ed differently the ntext of sexualy and genr inty.

QUEER VS. GAY: HOW THE WORDS ARE DIFFERENT, AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT

In the ntext of sexual inty, the word gay is generally ed to mean “of, relatg to, or beg a person who is sexually or romantilly attracted to people of their own sex or genr. Women who are attracted to other women often e the word lbian, though some women also e the term gay as well. Some people may intify as both gay and queer, wh some g the terms to dite different thgs different ntexts.

Recent survey data the US and the UK revealed that the proportn of the populatn who intifi as lbian, gay, or bisexual has risen slightly and that this trend is particularly salient among the youngt generatn: Generatn Z.

In the UK, only a slight majory of Gen Z members dite that they have an exclively heterosexual attractn, while the US, a Gallup poll dit that roughly 15% of Gen Z intifi as lbian, gay, or bisexual – pared to 7.

IS A LBIAN, GAY OR BISEXUAL INTY MORE COMMON TODAY?

9% of the Baby Boomers surveyed the US dited they were not heterosexual, many more may have still had same-sex experienc throughout their lifpan, but they simply do not firmly intify as lbian, gay, or bisexual. It is much easier to e out today as lbian, gay, or bisexual than was even jt 10 years ago, let alone 20, 30, 40 or 50 years ago. In Canada, for example, any dividual 53 years of age or olr 2021 was born at a time when homosexualy was a crimal offence.

THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS

There is, however, also a much darker explanatn for why we see fewer dividuals om past generatns intifyg as lbian, gay, or bisexual today than we do om the younger generatns. Gay and bisexual men om the Baby Boomer generatn were between 16 and 34 years of age at the peak of the HIV/AIDS epimic North Ameri. While is impossible to ever have accurate populatn statistics on a hidn populatn, is timated that at least 10% of gay men the Uned Stat between the ag of 25 and 44 had died by 1995.

Th, any attempt to “unt” the number of gay men the Baby Boomer or Gen X generatns needs to nsir the number of people who are simply no longer alive to answer the qutn. In the US data, the percentage of dividuals intifyg as lbian or gay has creased, but not nearly as much as the percentage of those intifyg as bisexual (.

HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR?

Addnally, bisexuals have always faced somewhat a tch-22 which they are both rejected by the heterosexual muny for beg a sexual mory and om the lbian and gay muny for not que beg “gay enough.

This means that beg transgenr (feelg like your assigned sex is very different om the genr you intify wh) isn’t the same thg as beg gay, lbian, or bisexual. Many asexual people feel romantilly attracted to people — so they may intify as asexual, and also as gay, lbian, bisexual, or straight. The study of nearly a half ln people clos the door on the bate around the existence of a so-lled “gay gene.

LBIANS MORE ACCEPTED THAN GAY MEN AROUND THE WORLD, STUDY FDS

It is worth keepg md that this study only vers some typ of sexualy — gay, lbian and cis-straight — but don’t offer many sights to genr inty. Humans have tried to unrstand human sexualy for centuri — and geics rearchers joed the ay the early 1990s after a seri of studi on tws suggted homosexualy ran fai.

“As a teenager tryg to unrstand myself and unrstand my sexualy, I looked at the ter for “the gay gene” and obvly me across Xq28, ” said Fah Sathirapongsasuti, a study -thor and senr scientist at 23andMe, which he joked once led him to believe he hered his gayns om his mother. “We worried a lot about volunteer bias, ” said Bailey, whose rearch clus a wily publicized study on Xq28 and gay brothers om 2018.

Sanrs llaborated wh Bailey on those earlier studi and said their work had always admted that there was no sgle “gay gene. The rearchers had members of the same-sex muny review the study’s sign and language, and they adm that their termology and fns for gay, lbian and heterosexual do not reflect the full nature of the sexualy ntuum. “[Our study] unrsr an important role for the environment shapg human sexual behavr and perhaps most importantly there is no sgle gay gene but rather the ntributn of many small geic effects sttered across the genome, ” Neale said.

3 DIFFERENC BETWEEN THE TERMS ‘GAY’ AND ‘QUEER’ — AND WHY IT MATTERS

Not only was a touchg moment, but powerfully brought back the '80s, when lbians and gay men were actually uned , whout any of the rifts that have long characterized those two strands of the muny. The group furly brought gay men, lbians, and others together, all uned the war agast the powers-that-be for ignorg the horror of the AIDS epimic.

Not many lbians had been stricken wh the disease, but the women were still out force, fiercely reactg to the LGBT vastatn and the need to rally for than gays vers lbians, beme gays and lbians vers the homophobic other, and I thought the batn would rock our brother/sisterhood the time, a gay pund wrote a stgg magaze article wonrg why lbians were so volved ACT UP, but I never wanted to qutn , elated that they had joed the surgence while helpg create a unified ont. Gay men and lbians, particular, often seem to be at oppose ends of a dishearteng divi, hardly joed ep-seated LGBT-ns. At queer nightclubs, the ia of a mixed crowd died long ago, and fact, not only do gays and lbians have separate hangouts, but those plac are for nich wh the groups.

The tth is that so many partyg gay men are foced on beg wh mirror imag that they shun their Sapphic sisters, feelg no more nnectn wh them than they do wh anybody 's not jt at the bars.