ЛГБТ+ қоғамының ортақ мәдениеті

Common culture shared by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people

LGBT culture is a culture shared by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals. It is sometimes referred to as queer culture (indicating people who are queer), while the term gay culture may be used to mean either "LGBT culture" or homosexual culture specifically. LGBT culture varies widely by geography and the identity of the participants. Elements common to cultures of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and intersex people include:
Works by famous gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people, including:
Contemporary LGBT artists and political figures like Larry Kramer, Keith Haring and Rosa von Praunheim. Historical figures identified as LGBT, although identifying historical figures with modern terms for sexual identity is controversial (see History of sexuality). However, many LGBT people feel a kinship with these people and their work (particularly that addressing same sex attraction or gender identity); an example is VictoryFund. org, dedicated to supporting homosexual politicians. An understanding of LGBT social movements
Figures and identities present in the LGBT community; within LGBT communities in Western culture, this might include drag kings and queens, pride parades and the rainbow flag. LGBT communities may organize themselves into, or support, movements for civil rights promoting LGBT rights in various places around the world. At the same time, high profile celebrity icons in the broader society who have achieved representation of LGBT culture itself, may offer strong support to these organizations in certain locations; for example, LGBT advocate and entertainer Madonna stated, "I was asked to perform at many Pride events around the world—but I would never, ever turn down New York City." Not all LGBT people identify with LGBT culture; this may be due to geographic distance, unawareness of the subculture's existence, fear of social stigma or a preference for remaining unidentified with sexuality or gender based subcultures or communities. The Queercore and Gay Shame movements critique what they see as the commercialization and self imposed "ghettoization" of LGBT culture. In some cities, particularly in North America, some LGBT people live in neighborhoods with a high proportion of gay residents, otherwise known as gay villages or gayborhoods—examples of these neighborhoods include Greenwich Village, Hell's Kitchen, and Chelsea in Manhattan; Castro and West Hollywood in California, United States; Le Village in Montreal, Canada; and Church and Wellesley in Toronto, Canada. Such LGBT communities organize special events in addition to pride parades celebrating their culture such as the Gay Games and Southern Decadence. On June 27, 2019, the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor was inaugurated at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village.

Some U. S. studies have found that the majority of gay male couples are in monogamous relationships. A representative U. S. study in 2018 found that 32% of gay male couples had open relationships. Research by Colleen Hoff of 566 gay male couples from the San Francisco Bay Area funded by the National Institute of Mental Health found that 45 percent were in monogamous relationships, however it did not use a representative sample. Gay actor Neil Patrick Harris has remarked, "I'm a big proponent of monogamous relationships regardless of sexuality, and I'm proud of how the nation is steering toward that." During the 1980s and 1990s, Sean Martin drew a comic strip (Doc and Raider) which featured a gay couple living in (or near) Toronto's Gay Village. His characters have recently been updated and moved to the internet. Although primarily humorous, the comic sometimes addressed issues such as gay bashing, HIV, and spousal abuse. An Australian study conducted by Roffee and Waling in 2016 discovered how some gay men felt like they were expected to be hyper sexual. Participants reported how other gay men would automatically assume that any interaction had sexual motivations. Furthermore, if it was then clarified that this is not the case then these gay men would suddenly feel excluded and ignored by the other gay men with which they had been interacting with. They felt that they could not obtain purely platonic friendships with other gay men. One participant reported feeling alienated and disregarded as a person if they were not deemed by other gay men as sexually attractive. This presumption and attitude of hypersexuality is damaging, for it enforces preconceived ideals upon people, who are then ostracised if they do not meet these ideals.

As with gay men, lesbian culture includes elements from the larger LGBTQ+ culture, as well as other elements specific to the lesbian community. Pre Stonewall organizations that advocated for lesbian rights, and provided networking opportunities for lesbians, included the Daughters of Bilitis, formed in San Francisco in 1955. Members held public demonstrations, spoke to the media, and published a newsletter. Primarily associated with lesbians in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, lesbian culture has often involved large, predominantly lesbian "women's" events such as the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival (closed after 2015) and the Club Skirts Dinah Shore Weekend. Lesbian culture has its own icons, such as Melissa Etheridge, k. d. lang (butch), Ellen DeGeneres (androgynous) and Portia de Rossi (femme). Lesbian culture since the late 20th century has often been entwined with the evolution of feminism. Lesbian separatism is an example of a lesbian theory and practice identifying specifically lesbian interests and ideas and promoting a specific lesbian culture. Examples of this included womyn's land and women's music. Identity based sports teams have also been associated with lesbian culture, particularly with the rise of lesbian softball teams and leagues in the 1980s and 1990s. Softball and other athletic teams created social community and allowed lesbians to reject social expectations of physicality, but were typically considered separated from lesbian feminism and political activism. 1950's and early '60s stereotypes of lesbian women stressed a binary of "butch" women, or dykes (who present masculine) and "femmes", or lipstick lesbians (who present feminine), and considered a stereotypical lesbian couple a butch femme pair. In the 1970s, androgyny, political lesbianism, and lesbian separatism became more common, along with the creation of women's land communities. The late 1980s and 1990s saw a resurgence of butch femme, and influences from punk, grunge, riot grrrl, emo, and hipster subcultures. In the 2000s and 2010s, the rise of Non binary gender gender identities brought some degree of return to androgynous styles, though at times with different intentions and interpretations than in the 1970s.

Bisexual culture emphasizes opposition to, or disregard of, fixed sexual and gender identity monosexism (discrimination against bisexual, fluid, pansexual and queer identified people), bisexual erasure and biphobia (hatred or mistrust of non monosexual people). Biphobia is common (although lessening) in the gay, lesbian and straight communities. Many bisexual, fluid, and pansexual people consider themselves to be part of the LGBTQ+ or queer community, despite any discrimination they may face. Western bisexual, pansexual, and fluid cultures also have their own touchstones, such as the books Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out (edited by Lani Kaʻahumanu and Loraine Hutchins), Bi: Notes for a Bisexual Revolution (by Shiri Eisner), and Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World (edited by Robyn Ochs); the British science fiction television series Torchwood, and personalities such as British singer and activist Tom Robinson, the Black Eyed Peas member Fergie, Scottish actor Alan Cumming and American performance artist and activist Lady Gaga. Celebrate Bisexuality Day has been observed on September 23 by members of the bisexual community and its allies since 1999.

Youth pride, an extension of the gay pride and LGBTQ+ social movements, promotes equality amongst young members (usually above the age of consent) of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual or transgender, intersex and questioning (LGBTQ+) community. The movement exists in many countries and focuses on festivals and parades, enabling many LGBTQ+ youth to network, communicate, and celebrate their gender and sexual identities. Schools with a gay–straight alliance (GSA) handle discrimination and violence against LGBTQ+ youth better than schools without it; they develop community and coping skills, and give students a safe space to obtain health and safety information. Sometimes the groups avoid labeling young people, preferring to let them identify themselves on their own terms "when they feel safe". Gay and lesbian youth have increased risks for suicide, substance abuse, school problems and isolation because of a "hostile and condemning environment, verbal and physical abuse, rejection and isolation from family and peers", according to a U. S. Task Force on Youth Suicide report. Further, LGBTQ+ youths are more likely to report psychological and physical abuse by parents or caretakers, and more sexual abuse. Suggested reasons for this disparity are:
youths may be specifically targeted on the basis of their perceived sexual orientation or gender non conforming appearance.
" Risk factors associated with sexual minority status, including discrimination, invisibility, and rejection by family members may lead to an increase in behaviors that are associated with risk for victimization, such as substance abuse, sex with multiple partners, or running away from home as a teenager." A 2008 study showed a correlation between the degree of parental rejection of LGB adolescents and negative health problems in the teenagers studied. Crisis centers in larger cities and information sites on the Internet have arisen to help youth and adults. A suicide prevention helpline for LGBT youth is part of The Trevor Project, established by the filmmakers after the 1998 HBO telecast of the Academy Award winning short film Trevor; Daniel Radcliffe donated a large sum to the group, and has appeared in its public service announcements condemning homophobia. Increasing mainstream acceptance of the LGBTQ+ communities prompted the Massachusetts Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth to begin an annual Gay–Straight Youth Pride observance in 1995. In 1997 the nonprofit Youth Pride Alliance, a coalition of 25 youth support and advocacy groups, was founded to hold an annual youth pride event in Washington, D. C.; Candace Gingrich was a speaker the following year. In 1999, the first annual Vermont Youth Pride Day was held. As of 2009 it is the largest queer and allied youth event in Vermont, organized by Outright Vermont to "break the geographic and social barriers gay youngsters living in rural communities face." In 2002, a college fair was added to the event to connect students with colleges and discuss student safety. In April 2003 a Youth Pride Chorus, organized with New York's LGBT Community Center, began rehearsals and later performed at a June Carnegie Hall Pride concert with the New York City Gay Men's Chorus. In 2004 the San Diego chapter of Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) worked with San Diego Youth Pride coordinators to organize a Day of Silence throughout the county. In 2005, Decatur (Georgia) Youth Pride participated in a counter demonstration against Westboro Baptist Church (led by church head Fred Phelps' daughter Shirley Phelps Roper), who were "greeting students and faculty as they arrived with words such as 'God hates fag enablers' and 'Thank God for 9/11'" at ten locations. In 2008 Chicago's Youth Pride Center, primarily serving "LGBT youth of color", opened a temporary location and planned to move into their new building on Chicago's South Side in 2010. In 2009, the Utah Pride Center held an event to coincide with Youth Pride Walk 2009, a "cross country walk by two Utah women trying to draw attention to the problems faced by homeless LGBT youth". In August 2010 the first Hollywood Youth Pride was held, focusing on the "large number of homeless LGBT youth living on Los Angeles streets." According to a 2007 report, "Of the estimated 1.6 million homeless American youth, between 20 and 40 percent identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender". At larger pride parades and festivals there are often LGBTQ+ or queer youth contingents, and some festivals designate safe spaces for young people. LGBT youth are more likely to be homeless than heterosexual, cisgender youth due to the rejection from their parents because of their sexual orientation, or gender identity (Choi et al., 2015; Durso and Gates, 2012; Mallon, 1992; Whitbeck et al., 2004). Out of the 1.6 million homeless people in the United States, forty percent of them identify as part of the LGBT community. In a survey of street outreach programs 7% of the youth were transgender (Whitbeck, Lazoritz, Crawford, & Hautala, 2014). Many of the transgender youth that are placed in homeless shelters do not get the type of help they need and often experience discrimination and systemic barriers that include sex segregated programs in institutional practices that refuse to understand their gender. Many transgender youths have problems acquiring shelters because of certain policies like binary gender rules, dress codes, and room assignments (Thaler et al., 2009). Problems with classification happen when the procedures or policies of a shelter require the youth to be segregated based on their assigned sex rather than what they classify themselves as. As a result, many of the LGBT youth end up on the street instead of shelters which are meant to protect them. LGBT youth also have a higher suicide rate in the U. S. Those who identify with the LGBT community are four times as likely to attempt suicide than those who do not. There was a study that was done to look into the difference of rates between gay high school students and their straight peers. They were asked about their sexual orientation and then about suicide. They found that about 32 percent of sexual minorities (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual) had suicidal thoughts in comparison to almost 9.5 percent of their heterosexual peers. was a great step in the inclusion of lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals in the military. "The repeal of DADT reversed the practice of discharging LGB service members on the basis of sexual identity." Although this was a large shift in policy by the U. S. for those identifying as LGB, those who are transgender are still not fully included in this change. Some challenges that transgender people face post DADT are "changing their name to align with their gender identity, changing their sex designation in official documentation and records, encouraging appropriate pronoun use, and obtaining appropriate medical services" (Levy et al., 2015; Parco et al., 2015a, 2015b). Another challenge that they face is transphobia, which is "the intense dislike or prejudice against transsexual or transgender people" (Hill & Willoughby).

Criticism of LGBT culture comes from a variety of sources, much of which is critique from within the community itself. Some, like Michael Musto, view the culture as conforming to caricatures or stereotypes that alienate "fringe" members of the community. Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore and movements like Gay Shame have argued that LGBT culture has been depoliticized by a tiny minority of relatively privileged queer people, who participate in "institutions of oppression" at the expense of the vast majority of LGBT people. Some consider the very notion of "separatism", or a group lifestyle, alienating (including of LGBTQ+ members in the broader society). Another problem is that bisexual and transsexual/transgender individuals experience social pressure to identify as gay or lesbian, and may face ostracism and discrimination from the mainstream LGBTQ+ culture. For bisexuals, this pressure is known as bisexual erasure. New York University School of Law professor Kenji Yoshino has written, "Gays de legitimatize bisexuals the lesbian and gay community abounds with negative images of bisexuals as fence sitters, traitors, cop outs, closet cases, people whose primary goal in life is to retain 'heterosexual privilege'".

Criticism has been made that the LGBT community represents an artificial separation, rather than one based on tangible customs or ethnic identification. In particular, labels that LGBT members use to describe themselves vary widely; some simply prefer to identify as loving a particular gender. Some believe that the LGBT community concept is alienating; the term itself implies estrangement from straight people as a separate group. Further, including three groups involved with sexuality and one group exploring transsexual/transgender identity (a broader phenomenon) is artificial. Mattilda Berstein Sycamore argues that the single issue focus of LGBT politics, which ignores all intra group differences, has naturally led to a movement and culture focused on the needs of white, middle class gay cisgender men, which alienates anyone who does not fit that description. Yuvraj Joshi argues that efforts to legalize same sex marriage have emphasized the sameness of gay people to heterosexuals, while privatizing their queer differences.

British journalist Mark Simpson's 1996 book, Anti Gay, describes forms of intolerance by the mainstream gay community towards subgroups. The Times wrote that Simpson succeeded in "pointing out that oppression and prejudice do not become legitimate just because they happen to be practiced by the previously oppressed". Aiden Shaw of Time Out New York wrote that "Thank fucking God someone did this, because whatever happened to our individuality, our differences?" Other commentators harshly criticized Simpson's argument, with Boyz declaring that "Simpson is a cunt."