LGBT

LGBT is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, & transgender. In usage since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.

The LGBT term is an adaptation of the initialism LGB, which began to replace the term gay in credit to the broader LGBT community beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s. When not inclusive of transgender people, the shorter term LGB is still used instead of LGBT.

It may refer to anyone who is non-heterosexual or non-cisgender, instead of exclusively to people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. To recognize this inclusion, a popular variant, LGBTQ, adds the letter Q for those who identify as queer or are questioning their sexual or gender identity.

Criticism of the term

The initialisms LGBT or GLBT are non agreed to by everyone that they encompass. For example, some argue that transgender and transsexual causes are not the same as that of lesbian, gay, and bisexual LGB people. This argument centers on the impression that being transgender or transsexual defecate to clear more with gender identity, or a person's apprehension of being or not being a man or a woman irrespective of their sexual orientation. LGB issues can be seen as a matter of sexual orientation or attraction. These distinctions have been provided in the context of political action in which LGB goals, such as same-sex marriage legislation and human rights work which may not put transgender and intersex people, may be perceived to differ from transgender and transsexual goals.

A abstraction in "lesbian & gay separatism" not to be confused with the related "lesbian separatism", holds that lesbians and gay men form or should form a community distinct and separate from other groups normally mentioned in the LGBTQ sphere. While not always appearing of sufficient number or agency to be called a movement, separatists are a significant, vocal, and active element within many parts of the LGBT community. In some cases separatists will deny the existence or modification to equality of bisexual orientations and of transsexuality, sometimes main public biphobia and transphobia. In contrasts to separatists, Peter Tatchell of the LGBT human rights group OutRage! argues that to separate the transgender movement from the LGB would be "political madness", stating that:

Queers are, like transgender people, gender deviant. We don't conform to traditional heterosexist assumptions of male and female behaviour, in that we have sexual and emotional relationships with the same sex. We should celebrate our discordance with mainstream straight norms.[...]

The portrayal of an all-encompassing "LGBT community" or "LGB community" is also disliked by some lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. Some do not subscribe to or approve of the political and social solidarity, and visibility and human rights campaigning that ordinarily goes with it including gay pride marches and events. Some of them believe that layout together people with non-heterosexual orientations perpetuates the myth that being gay/lesbian/bi/asexual/pansexual/etc. offers a person deficiently different from other people. These people are often less visible compared to more mainstream gay or LGBT activists. Since this faction is unmanageable to distinguish from the heterosexual majority, it is common for people to assume any LGBT people guide LGBT liberation and the visibility of LGBT people in society, including the adjusting to equal one's life in a different way from the majority. In the 1996 book Anti-Gay, a collection of essays edited by Mark Simpson, the concept of a 'one-size-fits-all' identity based on LGBT stereotypes is criticized for suppressing the individuality of LGBT people.

Writing in the BBC News Magazine in 2014, Julie Bindel questions if the various gender groupings now, "bracketed together" ... "share the same issues, values and goals?" Bindel allocated to a number of possible new initialisms for differing combinations and concludes that it may be time for the alliances to be reformed or finally go "our separate ways". In 2015, the slogan "Drop the T" was coined to encourage LGBT organizations to stop support of transgender people; the campaign has been widely condemned by many LGBT groups as transphobic.