Queer is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or are not cisgender. Originally meaning 'strange' or 'peculiar', queer came to be used pejoratively against LGBT people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to reclaim the word as a neutral or positive self-description.
Butch and femme are masculine (butch) or feminine (femme) identities in 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.
Curve is a global lesbian media project. It covers news, politics, social issues, and includes celebrity interviews and stories on entertainment, pop culture, style, and travel.
LGBTQ culture is a culture shared by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals. It is sometimes referred to as queer culture, while the term gay culture may be used to mean either "LGBT culture" or homosexual culture specifically.
Gender expression, or gender presentation, is a person's behavior, mannerisms, and appearance that are socially associated with gender, namely femininity or masculinity. Gender expression can also be defined as the external manifestation of one's gender identity through behavior, clothing, hairstyles, voice, or body characteristics. Typically, a person's gender expression is thought of in terms of masculinity and femininity, but an individual's gender expression may incorporate both feminine and masculine traits, or neither. A person's gender expression may or may not match their assigned sex at birth. This includes gender roles, and accordingly relies on cultural stereotypes about gender. It is distinct from gender identity.
LGBT stereotypes are stereotypes about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ) people based on their sexual orientations, gender identities, or gender expressions. Stereotypical perceptions may be acquired through interactions with parents, teachers, peers and mass media, or, more generally, through a lack of firsthand familiarity, resulting in an increased reliance on generalizations.
NewFest: The New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Film Festival put on by The New Festival, Inc., is one of the most comprehensive forums of national and international LGBT film/video in the world.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer+(LGBTQ+)music is music that focuses on the experiences of gender and sexual minorities as a product of the broad gay liberation movement.
Racism is a concern for many in the Western lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ) communities, with members of racial, ethnic, and national minorities reporting having faced discrimination from other LGBT people.
Discrimination against gay men, sometimes called gayphobia, is a form of homophobic prejudice, hatred, or bias specifically directed toward gay men, male homosexuality, or men who are perceived to be gay. This discrimination is closely related to femmephobia, which is the dislike of, or hostility toward, individuals who present as feminine, including gay and effeminate men.
Despite the history of colonisation and the resulting process of Westernisation since 1842, Hong Kong still embodies many aspects of Chinese traditional values towards sexuality. It is traditionally believed that heterosexuality is the nature, coherent, and privileged sexuality. Popular media marginalises and discriminates against LGBT members of Hong Kong in an attempt to maintain "traditional lifestyles".
The conditions of LGBT people in rural areas in the United States encompass a spectrum of experiences, influenced by geographic, cultural, and social contexts. The rural population of the U.S. exists across a wide geographical area, containing within it a broad diversity of cultural constructs and attitudes which in turn influence the varied experiences of rural LGBT people and communities within the United States.
The African-American LGBT community, otherwise referred to as the Black American LGBT community, is part of the overall LGBTQ culture and overall African-American culture. The initialism LGBT stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender.
The Aggressives is a 2005 documentary directed by Daniel Peddle. It is an exposé on the subculture of masculine presenting people of color and their "femme" counterparts. Filmed over five years in New York City, the featured subjects share their dreams, secrets, and deepest fears.
The Revival Women and the Word is a 2016 documentary film directed by Sekiya Dorsett, a queer filmmaker who works to give voice to issues of equality. This documentary chronicles a US tour group of black lesbian poets and musicians who are traveling performing making history as queer women of color. Their journey is to bring together their community and include interviews from leading black feminist and queer thinkers including Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Nikki Finney, and Alexis De Veaux. This documentary tackles themes such as gender, race, and sexuality. This film works to represent community and provide a special insight to the experience of queer women of color performers. Additionally, this film works to empower and raise the voices of the marginalized.
Ladies and Gentlewomen is a Tamil language, Indian documentary by Malini Jeevarathnam and produced by Pa. Ranjith. It is about love, life, and suicide among lesbians. The documentary also features a "Lesbian Anthem" for which the music was composed by Justin Prabhakaran and lyrics were penned by Kutti Revathi and Damayanthi.
Skyler Cooper is an American actor and activist. Cooper is known for playing both male and female roles. Cooper stated that after being gender neutral for most of his life, "As I launch my website as a transgender person, I identify as 'He' and with masculine pronouns."
Nancy Valverde was an American Chicana LGBT rights activist and pioneer in Los Angeles, California, who was considered a lesbian icon.
Nneka Onuorah is a director and producer. She is best known for her directorial debut, The Same Difference (2015), about gender roles in the Black lesbian community. She received a 2022 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Reality Program for her work on Lizzo's Watch Out for the Big Grrrls.
Ahead of the Curve is a 2020 American biographical documentary film co-produced and co-directed by Jen Rainin and Rivkah Beth Medow, with music composed by Meshell Ndegeocello. The film is based on the true story of Franco Stevens, one of the most influential women in lesbian history, and the founding publisher of Curve Magazine, a leading international lesbian lifestyle magazine. Portraying themselves in the film are, Franco Stevens, Kim Katrin, Denice Frohman, Amber Hikes, Andrea Pino-Silva, Melissa Etheridge and Jewelle Gomez. The documentary premiered in June 2020 at the San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival.
