#Lesbian rights activists

[coochiequeens]

A lesbian activist, an anti-war protester and a memoirist Eva Kollisch was a woman rose above tragedy.

By Luke Peteley | lpeteley@siadvance.com

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Eva Kollisch, 98, a Jewish refugee who was educated as a teen on Staten Island and later became a noted memoirist and a lesbian rights advocate, died Oct. 10 of a chest infection at her home in Manhattan, according to media reports.

Born in 1926 to a Jewish family outside Vienna, Austria, Kollisch faced persecution from the rising Nazi regime. As war loomed in 1939, Kollisch fled the Holocaust aboard a Kindertransport train, as part of the mass rescue of nearly 10,000 children to Britain prior to the outbreak of the second world war, as detailed by Kveller.

In 1940, she and her brothers arrived in the U.S. and were reunited with their parents in New York; the family would settle in an apartment on Staten Island, according to The New York Times.

A graduate of Curtis High School, Kollisch recounted in a 2016 interview how her early political views were shaped during her time as a student at the school.

“I went to high school on Staten Island and had a couple of years, sort of uninteresting years, in high school,” she said. “But it was safe. Nobody beat me up, nobody called me a Jew b***d or anything like that. And then toward the end of my second year I met a bunch of Trotskyists and it made a big impression on me.”

She continued that she “found a kind of home, an intellectual home. And a home for my own sense of injustice and wanting to make things right, making them OK. They were far from OK.”

After high school, she left Staten Island and worked on an assembly line in Detroit, and as a labor organizer. Despite joining the Trotskyist movement as a teen, Kollisch said she became disillusioned by the overwhelming male leadership.

It wasn’t until 1986 that she met future wife Naomi Replansky, a poet and labor activist. As noted by The New York Times, she first had two marriages to men, Stanley Plastrik in 1942, and Gert Berliner, an abstract expressionist artist and fellow refugee.

While with Berliner, the couple moved to New Mexico, where Kollisch wrote while working as a cook at a uranium mine, and as a social worker. It was there that she gave birth to a son, Uri; he and a grandson are the only immediate survivors. The couple then returned to New York and separated in 1959.

“I didn’t go through this period of great suffering that so many women did in the ‘40s and ‘50s, and by the 1960s, you know, it was a part of my androgyny, really, to have loved some men and to love women,” Kollisch said in a 2004 interview.

Kollisch and Replansky married in 2009.

In 2016, after decades as a couple, Kollisch and Replansky won the Clara Lemlich Social Activist Award; in 2020, the New York Times profiled how the couple were surviving the COVID-19 pandemic together. Replansky died at age 104 in January.

For work, Kollisch was a professor of comparative literature at Sarah Lawrence College, according to Kveller.

In addition to a career as a professor, Kollisch also became a poet and a vocal activist. The Museum of Jewish Heritage notes that “her American arrest came for anti-Vietnam protests; she stood vigil as a Woman in Black, and took part in the Seneca Women’s Encampment.”

Kollisch went on to write two memoirs, “Girl in Movement” (2000) and “The Ground Under My Feet” (2007).

[yourdailyqueer]

Chrissy Chlapecka

Gender: Non binary (she/they)

Sexuality: Lesbian

DOB: 11 April 2000

Ethnicity: White - American

Occupation: Influencer, singer, songwriter, activist

Note 1: For a while previously identified as being bisexual.

Note 2: Is best known as a key figure in "#BimboTok", a TikTok subculture centered on reclaiming the bimbo stereotype and aesthetic in a queer, feminist, and leftist context.

Note 3: Has ADHD

[womenshistory]

Gay rights demonstration, Albany, New York, 1971, Diana Davies.

[princessefemmelesbian]

My friend said that Harry Shitter would be a transandrophobia truther and I am literally SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP AT HOW ACCURATE THAT IS 😭 HE WOULD THO

[not-your-asian-fantasy]

Thai lesbian activist Matcha Phorn-In celebrates passing of marriage equality bill in Thailand 🌈

x

[wearethewinx]

look, in all seriousness:

if you're suggesting 'removing the men from winx,' you had fucking better have reams of worldbuilding prepared explaining the new gender system you came up with to replace it. because otherwise you're just doing 'eeeeewwww, boys!' gender essentialism. it's gross.

if you think winx would be better without yucky boys distracting you from the pretty girls kissing, you don't want a story, you want a porno. go write one.

[martyrbat]

what’s your favorite book you’ve read this year??? i gotta pick up something new!!

what a lovely question to receive! im so sorry for the delayed response and that i dont know your taste in books (please feel free to dm me anytime and talk about them!) but i really enjoyed The Gilda Stories to the point i've read it three times within the same month!

its a 1991 novel forcing on a Black lesbian that escapes enslavement and eventually becomes a vampire by two lesbians. each chapter being about a different time period in her life [1850, 1890, 1921, 1971, 1981, 2020, 2050]!

i dont want to give too much away if you havent read it yet but the writing is so enchanting and Jewelle Gomez's style is one of my favorites. its simultaneously melancholic and comforting, holding onto the message of how important hope for tomorrow is despite the current state of today and that community is needed not only for survival but for actual living—that those connections is what makes life truly fulfilling. i've underlined so many little lines in almost every passage (when not underlining the entire passage itself!) because i just love gilda herself as well as how her motivations, desires, and resilience is written and explored. plus i find the way vampires and how they function to be such a beautiful idea and so creative :) i really hope you read it and enjoy it as much as i have!! <33

from the afterword:

“Jewelle Gomez says that she modeled her first book of poems The Lipstick Papers after Lorde’s early publications, and was inspired by that vampire who appears on the very last page of From a Land Where Other People Live. Lorde asks whether the black community is ready for a black woman who defies limitations, and Gomez responds with Gilda, a black woman who moves across time and space, navigating different eras in black creative community. Gomez provides depth and flesh to the nightmares of narrow-minded people who police the definition of blackness, and steals back the power and threat of black feminine difference. In other words, if the definitions of blackness, femininity, and queerness are death in the eyes of the dominant culture, Gomez offers another way of being black, queer, and feminine by creating the undead.

Policy makers are afraid of the black woman who keeps her family alive without access to food, but here is Gilda, living on wine and dreams in the dark. Black nationalists are afraid of the black woman who can be a man when she needs to be, but here she is wearing britches and sprinting through the Midwest. The white feminist movement is afraid of a black woman in control of her sexuality, but here is a black woman who can run a brothel and kill a rapist with the same skills. Black women are afraid that expressing their power will leave them isolated and alone, but here is a black woman who wrestles for generations with the need for space and intimacy, interdependence and agency. Black artists are ready to produce a poetics that is more than a reaction to the oppressive narratives of the man, and here is Jewelle Gomez, a poet, relevant for generations.”

[wondermutt20]

"Equality means more than passing laws. The struggle is really won in the hearts and minds of the community, where it really counts."

Barbara Gittings - (1932-2007) - American Activist for LGBTQ equality

[hjellacott]

What trans women, feminists and Jews all have in common.

A/N: I originally wrote this as a response to a reblog, but then I realised it's perhaps the most important post I've ever written, and I know it's very long, but I hope that you, whoever you are, will read it. That's why I wanted to give it a voice of its own, shortening it a tad. This post discusses, in a kind, friendly and polite manner the whole fight between trans and feminists, the debate about Hogwarts Legacy and the problems of anti-semitism and transphobia. And it does so lovingly, and without an aim to brainwash, hurt or offend. So please, if you have ten minutes, please do read. Whoever you are. Thank you.

----

1. FIRST LET ME TELL YOU WHO I AM, SO THAT YOU KNOW THE KIND OF PERSON YOU'RE READING FROM.

I am very much sick of the fights between people who at the bottom, all just want to feel safe, and I am very much sick of the lack of actual polite conversation between us. I come from a Jewish background, from Sephardic Jews (meaning ethnically Jews, which makes me ethnically a Jew both in my maternal and paternal lines), but I also come from a city that has historically been Roman, Iberian, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Arabs, Visigoth, Phoenician, Tarshish and many more, which means I am aware that I am only alive because my ancestors mixed with people very different from them, and repeatedly survived persecution because their religion and/or civilization wasn't the "right one" to stay alive in depending on the historical time. My Jewish ancestors were likely prosecuted to such an extent, and not even that long ago, but during World War II, that they hid and pretended to be Catholics and kept quiet to save their lives. And then there's the fact that I'm bisexual, and whenever I've been in a same sex relationship (one of which lasted me several years) I had to hide, keep it quiet, and keep it a tight-lipped secret because I knew even on this day and age a lot of my loved-ones wouldn't understand, not because they're right-wingers (which they're not), but for other reasons. And I'm saying all of this because I want it to be understood that I know what it is like to be persecuted because of who you are and to never feel entirely safe. I never even felt I could hold my girlfriend's hand in public without receiving some kind of backlash. I never even dared to go into a LGBT march without wearing something to conceal my identity. And on top of things, I'm a woman, and I've never, ever in the decades I've been in this world, in no city I've ever visited, felt safe to be alone out in the street at night. I know I'm talking a lot, and I'm sorry, and I know you'all just want to shout terf, antisemitic and transphobe at me and stop reading, but I beg you to keep reading, even if it's long, because I'm hopeful that we can finally reach some kind of understanding.

Let's forget what divides us. What unites us is that we all feel unsafe. We all, women, gays, trans people, POC people, Jews, we all feel like just because there's something about us that we can't change, we're more likely to die than anyone else. To be raped, beaten-up, abducted and taken from the face of the Earth, just because of who we are.

So what I'm saying is, you're afraid? I understand. So am I. Too afraid to walk alone at night, too afraid to date anyone who isn't a friend of a friend (therefore pre-approved), too afraid to go around in my real life outside the internet telling people how multi-ethnicity I am, simply afraid. All of the time.

I am a fairly cultured person. I'm not the kind of person who simply goes online, believes whatever without evidence, and on and on. I am the kind of person with several higher education certificates, with studies both locally and abroad, the world-traveller, the ferocious reader, the one who reads all the news every day (Spanish, English and French) in several newspapers both right wing and left wing so that in the end I have all sides of the story, I come from a well-educated and very humble family, and I am not someone who blindly decided to support J. K. Rowling. I was horrified when I read the first people saying she was transphobic. But hey, I'm the kind of person who, if I disagree with someone, I read them to bits, because I want to know exactly what they think and why, and why I think differently, and I know that's not something a lot of the people you read do. And I'm in the arts, so half my friends are gay, another are trans, and a very small minority are straight and cisgender, so I promise you, that if I had any sincere belief that Rowling went against any minority, I would've been ferociously against her. I would've. And with that aim I set out to read her every tweet, and you know what I found?

She never actually says anything wrong about transgender people. Never. In fact she doesn't speak against them, she speaks in favour and defense of women and against sexist, violent men. Not against trans people. And I had this conversation with my transgender friends, asking them why they'd gotten offended exactly, and when they looked at Rowling's tweets, you know what they told me? That that wasn't what they'd been told she'd said. Because like many of you, they'd read some rumour in social media, some article in the press, and got so angry they never bothered to actually read what she'd really said, in their context (meaning, following the Twitter conversations and everything, not isolated tweets either). But when I showed them? They were baffled. And they understood she wasn't transphobic. It's been years, and I still don't have a friend who does not stand with J. K. Rowling. And that, listen, that includes Jews, trans, gays, lesbians, and so on, because like I said, I work in the Arts, which as you know is one of the most diverse collectives. And another thing that I noticed was how much had been lost in translation. English is not my first language, but as you can see I mostly manage all right. But when I read translations into Spanish and French, they missed so much about what Rowling had really said, and twisted so much. So let me give you a brief summary of what she actually believes:

2. LET'S DELVE DEEP INTO ROWLING'S ACTUAL WORDS.

Sex is real. If you're born with female or male sex that cannot change. We know this to be scientifically and medically true, which is why when you have surgery to transition, for which a friend of mine is preparing right now, you need to have lots of hormonal medications to try and keep your body behaving as the gender you identify with and against your sex, and the minute you stop, your body will naturally begin behaving like your sex again. And this doesn't change even if you have surgeries, this is for life. If you don't believe me, simply check medical websites, I promise you this is true.

It is dangerous to have transgender women who have not undergone a physical transition in the same private spaces as women. I know this point is very contentious, but before you get angry, hear me out. This is not because anyone thinks transgender people are dangerous. This is because men have proven to be dangerous. What's more common, for a man to rape a woman, or for a woman to rape a man? how often do you hear of women who were murdered by their male exes or even partners, or relatives? I mean, I've gone to several of those funerals and vigils for women and girls killed like that. So the idea behind not wanting trans women and women to share spaces where trans women might have it easier to rape women is that perhaps those trans women, if they haven't physically transitioned, still have the physical advantages of the male sex: more strength, bigger body, and a penis. Imagine my shock if I was getting naked in my prison cell and then I found a person physically stronger and bigger than me, with a dick, naked next to me, in a perfect opportunity to rape me. Would I call them a trans woman? No. But they would call themselves that, and use it to get into that space. That's why Scotland had to backpedal in their laws allowing people to identify themselves as trans women and go into female prisons, because they had several cases in which this resulted in women being raped by trans women, or by people who claimed to be. Because as we all know. plenty of men who are sexual predators will identify as women not just to have access to women, but to have access to transgender women as well, and rape them, and kill them. So it appears that in order to keep trans women and women safe from male predators, we need to make sure that no one with biological advantages of men can share private spaces with them. And if this means having a separate prison for people with the physical built, strength and sexual organs of men, so that they cannot predate on anyone, I vote we do it.

Women won't wheesht. This refers to the fact that achieving rights for someone shouldn't mean removing them for someone else. So in order to give transgender people rights, we cannot take them from another collective, in this case, women. If women are shouting they're terrified of being raped and killed, we need to listen. It is a disrespect, a sexist, female-erasing, cruel thing to do, to ignore them and force them to accept sharing spaces they don't want to share with anyone else. And the only thing that imposing transgender women in their spaces is going to cause is what's happening now: violence, harassment, and an imposibility to have peaceful conversations, not to mention an immediate dislike and fear of transgender women. So instead of achieving transgender rights by harassing someone else, we need to give them their own things. For example, say you have a sibling and you want their room, right? well, harassing them into letting them share it is not going to work. You'll never again get along with your sibling. But asking your parents to build you your own bedroom will keep both sides happy. That's what Rowling and people like me believe in. That fine, if you don't feel safe sharing spaces with people with a dick because you don't want to be raped and murdered, hey, neither do we. So why don't we respect each other's fears and safety wishes and each have our own spaces? And then we can all feel safe around people exactly like us.

Transgender CHILDREN shouldn't be able to go through life changing, irreversible surgeries to remove their sexual organs without plenty of check-ups with doctors and psychiatrists or psychologists who can make sure the child fully understands the risks. This is due to the avalanche of feedback we have from detransitioners who spoke up about having been brainwashed, having given "informed" consent that wasn't actually very well informed, and having deeply regretted surgeries they did without really knowing what was going to happen, and that have now caused them chronic pain that cannot be cured and irreversible physical, mental and emotional damage.

That's all Rowling has said. Nothing against transgender people. She's only worried about the safety of children and women. Period. And I can tell you that with my hand on my heart because I have read her every tweet, and I have also read her open letter against cancel culture, and plenty of articles on the matter.

3. LET'S TALK ABOUT JEWS.

Now about the Jewish thing. Rowling is NOT an anti-Semitic. The first person who called her anti-Semitic was a Jewish man called Jon Stewart, who did so jokingly, and who was immediatelly appalled by the harassment Rowling received from people that took him seriously, forcing not just him, but also multiple Jewish celebrities, Jewish organisations and Jewish charities, to speak up in support of J. K. Rowling and publicly state that they don't believe she's anti-Semitic.

I bet you've only been reading from people who think like you. Many of you, the second you've heard something you didn't like, shut the other person out, called them insults and names, labelled them as Terfs, transphones and anti-Semites, and refused to listen. And if you never hear the people you disagree with, you're never going to hear anything but validity, even if your ideas are insane. Like the flat-Earthers. And all you've been reading from Rowling have been things taken out of context, or told to you by someone else. Do your people ever encourage you to read extract from the source? no. Do they ever show you receipts? only if they've been carefully trimmed.

But people have agendas, you know? That's what happened with Nazism. So you get a collective of Trans Radical Activists, radicals who might not even be actually trans, but know that if they fight women, people like Rowling, and put enough pressure in the governments, they can make laws change so that men, not trans women, but men pretending to be trans women, have easy access to rape women and trans women. Think about it. Wouldn't it be incredibly smart for alt-right men to infiltrate the Transgender activism to start violent fights against women, calling them cunts, telling them to kill themselves, and telling them to suck dick, making women the bad guys, convincing trans people that women are out to get them and to kill them, and getting lawmakers to make laws that allow anyone to simply say they're women and go into female prisons or lockers? Hold on. That's exactly what's happened. I don't believe for a second that the TRAs are all transgender. I believe many of them are alt-right men. And you'll identify them easily by their sexist, violent behaviour and speech, and their whole discourse against women and claims that women like Rowling actively threaten trans people's rights, when none of it is true.

So now say the TRAs, who want women to have less rights and men to have more, and who want to easily be able, as men, to infiltrate spaces that were previously private to women, so that they can no longer have their own spaces, find something else that gets people furious towards their enemy. Rowling has stood against alt-right men her whole life. Naturally, when they saw someone call her anti-Semite, they jumped into that waggon. Another opportunity to get someone cancelled. To demonise a defender of women, until there's none left. So that's what they did. They called her anti-Semite, came up with the whole BS about the goblins, made lots of things up, took more stuff out of context. And because they were in the trans collective, aka, "the good guys", the perceived victims, people have been far more inclined to believe them, to listen to them, and to be compassionate to them. But let me tell you, if these men are allowed into female spaces, and actual trans women find themselves in those spaces with them, they'll be in as much danger as any other woman, if not more.

Now you probably think we're crazy and paranoid. Question. Is the transgender collective telling you that? and if so, isn't it a little suspicious that someone wants to convince you that someone else is being paranoid? that they're out to get you? Because that's what they're doing. Me? Rowling didn't convince me. Nobody had to. I just had to read the news, like I told you I do all the time, and see all of this coming true. See women being repeatedly harassed, sexually and physically, threatened, often by men, far-right men who are strangely, suddenly, very interested in trans rights (isn't that also suspicious?), and seeing all the news and personal stories around me of women being raped because a man was allowed to identify as a trans woman and put into their space, where they had freedom to rape and murder. This is out in the news. The real news. And it's happening all over the place, which tells you I'm not being paranoid or dellusional, I'm telling you what's going on.

This is how Nazism worked as well. It started with Nazis who wanted a kind of economical power that at the time was in the hands of Jews. Do you remember when people tell you immigrants take jobs! women are transphobic! black people are criminals! All that is classic far-right speech. And it's all studied in the Nazi propaganda techniques, which had been long studied and employed by all politicians across the globe. What you do is identify one minority you can blame for current problems, and turn the world against them, in such way that the public doesn't realise all you're doing, supposedly to erase the problem, that is actually just to make you more powerful. The Nazis decided Jews shouldn't be having so many businesses and thriving economy, so they demonised them, said they were greedy, thieves, the inferior race, less good than aryan people, criminals, that they didn't deserve to live. The Nazi was a legal party that was elected to remove the problem, much like Trump was elected to end the problem of the immigrants and the POC. And legally, Hitler got his people to vote for him to have more and more power, until he could rule the world, on the basis that he'd do it to rid them of the Jews. Only that then he didn't stop with the Jews. He went after "traitors", after gypsies, after LGBT, after POC, and so on. And they took or burned art and books along the way.

So now think again of who's supporting Hitler-like conducts. I'm not supporting anyone who's telling me not to listen to opposing opinions, who's telling me to spread a message of threats, harassment and sexual insults, nor who's telling me to burn books, culture, and cancel, silence, erase, eliminate anyone who has an opinion other than mine. You are. And that's what's Hitler-like. That's what's fucking dangerous, and a threat to freedom of speech, to democracy.

Going back to the bloody videogame. You know why they call it anti-Semitic or blood libel? first was with the goblins. Now that speech seems to have died down because we're pointing out that seeing goblins as Jews is more Nazi-like, than non-Nazi. That they're simply folklore. So now they shut up about that. Now they tell you that the Avalanche developers (that's the company behind Hogwarts Legacy) are anti-Semites. That's based on the fact that an alt-right, Troy Leavitt, was the lead designer of Hogwarts Legacy. Well, you've been pleased to know he's lost his job now, and also, that Avalanche is full of normal people just like us, and that the alt-right was a minority. This guy, perhaps one or two more we're yet to know about, which, given the amount of alt-right worldwide, it's safe to say that every big company has at least a small amount of alt-right employees or even bosses.

But it takes thousands of people to make a videogame as big as Hogwarts Legacy, and just because two or three are alt-right, it doesn't make the game anti-Semitic. We're taking the game from them. We're making it ours. And personally, I've been playing for a few days now, and there's nothing even remotely far-right or anti-Semitic. Any war game I've ever played is far more anti-Semitic and racist and sexist than this one will ever be.

And in any case, before you go like dumb sheep simply believing what people say, I encourage you to make your own informed opinions. Don't be lazy. Empty your brain from judgement and make your own research. Be like scientists. But believing whatever BS you hear from people who've never played the game about said game, from people who've never read Potter about Potter, and so on... That is such a stupid thing to do. Such a brainwashing. You don't believe someone can cure you if they don't show you a CV and reputation as great doctors, so why do you believe a word from people who haven't even researched the thing they criticise, on their own, not through other's comments and ideas?

But hold on! Don't just take my word for it. Don't just believe me. Please, do research. It's time-consuming, but you're going to want to read the news, who are TRAs, their links to the alt-right, Rowling's actual tweets, who Troy Leavitt is, what Avalanche Software is, and you're going to want to read the news about female violence, legal changes, and detransitioners, and a horrible thing called transmaxxing, which will really open your eyes. I won't tell you to burn books. I'll tell you to open books, newspapers, everything... And get really informed. Knowledge is power.

[commiepinkofag]

Coors Boycott

Howard Wallace, in sunglasses, is a gay labor and peace activist who is perhaps best known as a co-founder of Pride at Work (PAW), previously named the Lesbian and Gay Labor Alliance. He was one of the founders of Bay Area Gay Liberation (BAGL) in 1975 and, with Harvey Milk, he led the Coors Beer boycott that began the same year. 

Howard's activism in Denver, Colorado and in San Francisco over the last 30 years has centered on equal rights for all regardless of sexual orientation or race. He is a tireless advocate for coalition building between communities in order to forge alliances based on mutually identified goals.

📷 Howard Petrick

[yourdailyqueer]

Louise Lawrence (deceased)

Gender: Transgender woman

Sexuality: Lesbian

DOB: Born 1912

RIP: Died 1976

Ethnicity: White - American

Occupation: Artist, activist, writer, teacher

Note: Throughout her life, Lawrence corresponded with and built an extensive network of transgender people across the Bay Area, the US, and globally. Through Lawrence's network, members connected and collectivized, sharing information about doctors, medical procedures and comparing surgical results. She was known to house transgender people, including those who had traveled to seek surgery in San Francisco.

[juniepops]

Idk it’s so easy to mind your business. I dunno what bi lesbian means. Is the person like actively transphobic or something? No? Who cares

[vampacidic]

every once in a while i like to listen to conservatives talk. just to see how they're doing over there. and the absolute double think necessary to be a conservative is mind boggling

like one of the big things with conservatism is "keeping up the past" right. and that "past" is just western european ideals which is its own bucket of worms but the gist is "individualism good, sharing bad". however right wingers (specifically trans ones. think blaire white) will talk about how "the majority is cis so we should make sure they're the most comfortable :)" THAT JS THE OPPOSITE OF INDIVIDUALISM. WHICH YOU WERE JUST TELLING ME IS GOOD. THESE THINGS MEAN THE OPPOSITE THINGS AND I AM CRYI G

[activismforhumanity]

As LGBTQIA+ Pride 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 Month is quickly upon us. Let's not forget to continue to use our voices to stand up for queer rights as especially here in the USA where rights are quickly being ripped from us as queer people.

There are so many countries around the world where it isn't safe in the slightest to be gay, transgender, or queer. The death penalty for simply being who we are, still exists in some countries as of 2024.

Please remember to continue to stand up for the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community. Love everyone ♥️ be kind, and be yourself.

Sticker spotted in West Norwood, Lambeth, London

[nerdygaymormon]

The LGBTQ community has seen controversy regarding acceptance of different groups (bisexual and transgender individuals have sometimes been marginalized by the larger community), but the term LGBT has been a positive symbol of inclusion and reflects the embrace of different identities and that we’re stronger together and need each other. While there are differences, we all face many of the same challenges from broader society.

In the 1960′s, in wider society the meaning of the word gay transitioned from ‘happy’ or ‘carefree’ to predominantly mean ‘homosexual’ as they adopted the word as was used by homosexual men, except that society also used it as an umbrella term that meant anyone who wasn’t cisgender or heterosexual. The wider queer community embraced the word ‘gay’ as a mark of pride.

The modern fight for queer rights is considered to have begun with The Stonewall Riots in 1969 and was called the Gay Liberation Movement and the Gay Rights Movement.

The acronym GLB surfaced around this time to also include Lesbian and Bisexual people who felt “gay” wasn’t inclusive of their identities. 

Early in the gay rights movement, gay men were largely the ones running the show and there was a focus on men’s issues. Lesbians were unhappy that gay men dominated the leadership and ignored their needs and the feminist fight. As a result, lesbians tended to focus their attention on the Women’s Rights Movement which was happening at the same time. This dominance by gay men was seen as yet one more example of patriarchy and sexism. 

In the 1970′s, sexism and homophobia existed in more virulent forms and those biases against lesbians also made it hard for them to find their voices within women’s liberation movements. Betty Friedan, the founder of the National Organization for Women (NOW), commented that lesbians were a “lavender menace” that threatened the political efficacy of the organization and of feminism and many women felt including lesbians was a detriment.

In the 80s and 90s, a huge portion of gay men were suffering from AIDS while the lesbian community was largely unaffected. Lesbians helped gay men with medical care and were a massive part of the activism surrounding the gay community and AIDS. This willingness to support gay men in their time of need sparked a closer, more supportive relationship between both groups, and the gay community became more receptive to feminist ideals and goals. 

Approaching the 1990′s it was clear that GLB referred to sexual identity and wasn’t inclusive of gender identity and T should be added, especially since trans activist have long been at the forefront of the community’s fight for rights and acceptance, from Stonewall onward. Some argued that T should not be added, but many gay, lesbian and bisexual people pointed out that they also transgress established gender norms and therefore the GLB acronym should include gender identities and they pushed to include T in the acronym. 

GLBT became LGBT as a way to honor the tremendous work the lesbian community did during the AIDS crisis. 

Towards the end of the 1990s and into the 2000s, movements took place to add additional letters to the acronym to recognize Intersex, Asexual, Aromantic, Agender, and others. As the acronym grew to LGBTIQ, LGBTQIA, LGBTQIAA, many complained this was becoming unwieldy and started using a ‘+’ to show LGBT aren’t the only identities in the community and this became more common, whether as LGBT+ or LGBTQ+. 

In the 2010′s, the process of reclaiming the word “queer” that began in the 1980′s was largely accomplished. In the 2020′s the LGBTQ+ acronym is used less often as Queer is becoming the more common term to represent the community. 

[gaa-marie]

Here's an image of our founders Arthur Bell, Marty Robinson, Tom Doerr, Kay "Tobin" Lahusen, Freddie Cabellero, Fred Olansky, Arthur Evans, and Peter Marleau.