282 articles
Betty DeGeneres
Betty DeGeneres, New Orleans-born retired speech pathologist and mother of Ellen DeGeneres, became the Human Rights Campaign's first non-gay National Coming Out Project spokesperson in 1997 and wrote Love, Ellen.
Biphobia
Biphobia is prejudice and discrimination against bisexual people, also called binegativity; related to monosexism and bi-erasure, it comes from both straight and gay/lesbian communities and is linked to bisexual mental health disparities.
Bisexual erasure
Bisexual erasure (bi erasure, bisexual invisibility) is the ignoring, falsifying, or reexplaining of bisexuality as gay or straight. Covers Yoshino's epistemic contract, gendered stereotypes, media tropes, and health disparities.
Bisexual flag
Bisexual flag: pink, purple, blue pride flag designed by Michael Page, unveiled 5 December 1998 at BiCafe; 2:1:2 stripes with colors from Liz Nania's biangles; BiNet USA's 2020 copyright claim was dropped.
Bisexual lighting
Bisexual lighting: use of pink, purple, and blue lighting, matching the bisexual pride flag, in film, TV, and music to signal bisexuality; originated in a 2014 Tumblr post about Sherlock, peaked 2016-2018, and was used deliberately in Heartstopper.
Bisexuality
Bisexuality (bi): romantic, emotional, or sexual attraction to more than one gender. Distinct from pansexuality; largest LGBTQ+ identity (5.3% of U.S. adults); faces bi-erasure and elevated mental health disparities.
Bobrisky
Bobrisky (Okuneye Idris Olanrewaju, born 1992) is a Nigerian social media influencer known as a crossdresser and described as a trans woman, known for the 2024 Best Dressed Female controversy and a six-month naira-abuse prison sentence.
Boi (slang)
Boi is an informal spelling of "boy" used as playful internet slang and as a queer identity term rooted in Black American vernacular and lesbian communities; also a Welsh greeting and the BOI finance acronym.
Brandon Teena
Brandon Teena (Teena Renae Brandon), 21, a Nebraska transgender man raped December 25, 1993 and murdered December 31 with Lisa Lambert and Phillip Devine; Lotter and Nissen convicted, sheriff found negligent in Brandon v. County of Richardson.
Brenda Biya
Brenda Biya (King Nasty), born 1997, daughter of Cameroon's President Paul Biya; came out publicly in June-July 2024 and called for decriminalization of same-sex conduct, illegal in Cameroon since 1972 under Penal Code article 347-1.
Butch and femme
Butch and femme are paired masculine and feminine lesbian identity categories that formed the core of 1940s-1950s US working-class lesbian bar culture, declined under 1970s feminist critique, and persist as queer identities.
Capital punishment for homosexuality
Capital punishment for homosexuality: execution for consensual same-sex conduct, once a capital crime in all thirteen American colonies and now imposed or possible in about 12 jurisdictions including Iran, northern Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Uganda, and Yemen.
Castro District, San Francisco
The Castro, San Francisco's historically LGBTQ neighborhood also called Eureka Valley, centered on Castro Street between Market and 19th; home of Harvey Milk's Castro Camera, the Castro Theatre, Twin Peaks Tavern, and the 2019 LGBTQ Cultural District.
Catholic Church and homosexuality
Catholic Church and homosexuality: official teaching that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered and the inclination objectively disordered, with respect and non-discrimination owed to persons; covers Catechism 2357–2359, CDF documents, seminary rules, and Fiducia supplicans blessings.
Cecilia Gentili
Cecilia Gentili (1972–2024) was an Argentine-born transgender activist, author, and actress in New York City who directed policy at Gay Men's Health Crisis, founded Trans Equity Consulting, and acted in Pose.
Censorship by Google
Censorship by Google covers content removal, restriction, demotion, and demonetization on Google Search and YouTube, covering policy scope, enforcement scale, LGBTQ disputes, misinformation reversals, and legal removals.
Christine Jorgensen
Christine Jorgensen (1926-1989), born George William Jorgensen Jr. in the Bronx, was an American trans woman, first widely known in the US for sex reassignment surgery in Denmark under Christian Hamburger; NY Daily News scoop of December 1, 1952 made her a celebrity, entertainer, and transgender advocate.
Christopher Street Day
Christopher Street Day (CSD) is the name used in Germany and Switzerland for yearly Pride marches, named for the 1969 Stonewall rebellion near Christopher Street in New York.
Civil union
Civil union: a legally registered relationship giving couples some or all marriage rights without marriage; also called registered partnership (partnerschap, PACS). First law Denmark 1989; spread through Europe and US states; largely displaced by same-sex marriage.
Cleve Jones
Cleve Jones, American LGBT and AIDS activist mentored by Harvey Milk, co-founder of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation (1983) and originator of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt; author of When We Rise (2016), UNITE HERE organizer.
Cleveland Street scandal
Cleveland Street scandal, or West End scandal: 1889 London male brothel at 19 Cleveland Street where GPO telegraph boys served aristocratic clients; named peers, cover-up accusations, Labouchere Amendment context.
Closeted
Closeted describes concealing one's sexual orientation or gender identity. Covers the metaphor's debutante-ball origins, concealment strategies, mental health findings, and structural stigma effects on coming out.
Colorado Springs nightclub shooting
Colorado Springs nightclub shooting: mass shooting at Club Q, an LGBTQIA+ nightclub in Colorado Springs, on November 19, 2022. Shooter Anderson Lee Aldrich killed five and wounded many before patrons subdued him; later sentenced to life plus 190 years.
Coming out
Coming out is the process of disclosing one's LGBTQ+ sexual orientation or gender identity, a developmental process shaped by minority stress, with falling disclosure ages, generally positive outcomes, and distinct online dynamics.
Compton's Cafeteria riot
The Compton's Cafeteria riot was an August 1966 uprising by trans women, drag queens, and sex workers against police harassment at a 24-hour Tenderloin diner in San Francisco, three years before Stonewall, rediscovered by historian Susan Stryker.
Continental Baths
Continental Baths, a gay bathhouse in the Ansonia Hotel basement, New York, 1968 to mid-1970s, founded by Steve Ostrow; launched Bette Midler, Barry Manilow, DJs Knuckles, and Levan.
Corrective rape
Corrective rape, also called curative rape, is a hate crime of raping lesbian or gender non-conforming people to "cure" their orientation; coined in South Africa, documented especially against black township lesbians, and contested as a term.
Cottaging
Cottaging, British gay slang (also "tea-room") for seeking or having sex in public lavatories, dating to at least 1729, criminalized under s71 Sexual Offences Act 2003, declined after the 1980s.
Cross-dressing
Cross-dressing: wearing clothing culturally associated with another gender; a form of gender expression, usually not tied to gender identity, sexual orientation, or erotic activity; distinct from drag performance.
Cruising for sex
Cruising for sex is the search for sexual partners in public spaces, chiefly among men who have sex with men, via coded looks in parks, toilets, and heaths; documented since the 18th century and now largely displaced by geosocial apps that move encounters into homes.