LGBT is an initialism that stands for "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender". It may refer to anyone who is non-heterosexual, non-heteroromantic, or non-cisgender, instead of exclusively to people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. The variant LGBTQ adds a Q for those who identify as queer (which can be synonymous with LGBT) or are questioning their sexual or gender identity, while LGBTQ+ adds a plus sign for "those who are part of the community, but for whom LGBTQ does not accurately capture or reflect their identity". Many further variations of the acronym exist, such as LGBT+ (simplified to encompass the Q concept within the plus sign), LGBTQIA+ (adding intersex, asexual, aromantic and agender), and 2SLGBTQ+ (adding two-spirit for a term specific to Indigenous North Americans). The LGBT label is not universally agreed to by everyone that it is generally intended to include. The variations GLBT and GLBTQ rearrange the letters in the acronym. In use since the late 1980s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for marginalized sexualities and gender identities.
The earlier initialism LGB began to replace the term gay (or gay and lesbian) in the late 1980s to reference the broader community. When not inclusive of transgender people, the shorter LGB is still used. (Full article...)
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 36 countries, with a total population of 1.5 billion people (20% of the world's population). The most recent country to legalise same-sex marriage is Greece. Two more countries, Liechtenstein and Thailand, are set to begin performing same-sex marriages in late 2024 or in early 2025.
Adoption rights are not necessarily covered, though most states with same-sex marriage allow those couples to jointly adopt as other married couples can. In contrast, 35 countries (as of 2023) have definitions of marriage in their constitutions that prevent marriage between couples of the same sex, most enacted in recent decades as a preventative measure. Some other countries have constitutionally mandated Islamic law, which is generally interpreted as prohibiting marriage between same-sex couples.[original research?] In six of the former and most of the latter, homosexuality itself is criminalized. It is legally recognized in a large majority of the world's developeddemocracies; notable exceptions are Italy, Japan, South Korea and the Czech Republic. It is not yet recognized in any of the world's Muslim-majority states, though first steps are being taken in Kosovo. Some countries, such as China and Russia, restrict advocacy for same-sex marriage. (Full article...)
Anna Borysivna Sharyhina (born c.1978) is a Ukrainian feminist and LGBT activist. She is a cofounder of the Sphere Women's Association, a lesbian feminist organisation in Kharkiv, and of the NGO Kyiv Pride, the organizing committee of the Pride Parade in Kyiv.
...the first edition of Patience and Sarah, winner of the 1971 Stonewall Book Award, was self-published and all copies sold by the author after six publishers rejected it for not being marketable?
...that openly-gay actor Robert La Tourneaux considered his role as the gay hustler in the 1970 film The Boys in the Band to be the "kiss of death" for his career?
