Queer studies, sexual diversity studies, or LGBT studies is the education of topics relating to
sexual orientation
Sexual orientation is an enduring pattern of romantic or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. These attractions are generall ...
and
gender identity
Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the i ...
usually focusing on
lesbian
A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...
,
gay
''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
,
bisexual
Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...
,
transgender
A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...
,
gender dysphoria
Gender dysphoria (GD) is the distress a person experiences due to a mismatch between their gender identitytheir personal sense of their own genderand their sex assigned at birth. The diagnostic label gender identity disorder (GID) was used until ...
,
asexual,
queer
''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...
,
questioning,
intersex
Intersex people are individuals born with any of several sex characteristics including chromosome patterns, gonads, or genitals that, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical bina ...
people and
cultures
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...
.
Originally centered on
LGBT history
LGBT history dates back to the first recorded instances of same-sex love and sexuality of ancient civilizations, involving the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) peoples and cultures around the world. What survives af ...
and
literary theory
Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Culler 1997, p.1 Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, mo ...
, the field has expanded to include the academic study of issues raised in
archaeology
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
,
sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...
,
psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry.
Initial psych ...
,
anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...
, the
history of science
The history of science covers the development of science from ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural, social, and formal.
Science's earliest roots can be traced to Ancient Egypt and Meso ...
,
philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
,
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...
,
sexology,
political science
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...
,
ethics
Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns m ...
, and other fields by an examination of the identity, lives, history, and perception of being queer.
Queer studies is not the same as
queer theory, which is an analytical viewpoint within queer studies (centered on
literary studies
Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...
and
philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
) that challenges the putatively "socially constructed" categories of sexual identity.
Background
Queer is the implicit identity of gender and sex, and how it is incorporated in individuals lives. It can be used as an adjective, verb and a noun. Queer has been used intersectionality in academia, becoming a mode of analysis. This is since the reclaimed-slur encompasses inclusivity into the 21st century. Some find using the term queer studies more defining than LGBTQ+ Studies, as it provides more universal experiences.
Many topics within queer studies focus on the open possibilities beyond heteronormativity; detailing texts, cultural artifacts produced by queer individuals, as well as expanding beyond into how queer interacts with daily life.
Though a new discipline, a growing number of colleges have begun offering academic programs on the expansive topics of queer. This has been a trend in higher education since the early 90's.
Queer as a reclaimed slur
Queer
''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...
has become the topic of controversy over the reclaiming of the word used against LGBTQ+ individuals for the last century. There is a debate on the use of LGBTQ+ studies or queer studies. LGBTQ+ provides categorical depiction in the subjects, Whereas queer has a history of being a common descriptor for someone who was any emotion from happy to drunk in the 19th century, then a slur against same sex individuals in the 20th century. Queer did not have an implicit sexual definition until the early 20th century
and reclamation of the slur started during Late 80's and 90's. This was a response to the over all LGBTQ+ movement, with influence of the AIDs crisis during this time. Some say queer offers an expansion of definition without categorical labels, while some do still not accept queer in the LGBTQ+ community due to its harmful history.
History
During the 1920s same-sex subcultures were beginning to become more established in several larger US cities.
Studies centering around queer originated in the 1970s with the publication of several "seminal works of gay history. Inspired by ethnic studies,
women's studies
Women's studies is an academic field that draws on feminist and interdisciplinary methods to place women's lives and experiences at the center of study, while examining social and cultural constructs of gender; systems of privilege and oppress ...
, and similar identity-based academic fields influenced by the
critical theory
A critical theory is any approach to social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to reveal, critique and challenge power structures. With roots in sociology and literary criticism, it argues that social problems stem more from soci ...
of the
Frankfurt School
The Frankfurt School (german: Frankfurter Schule) is a school of social theory and critical philosophy associated with the Institute for Social Research, at Goethe University Frankfurt in 1929. Founded in the Weimar Republic (1918–1933), dur ...
, the initial emphasis was on "uncovering the suppressed history of gay and lesbian life;" it also made its way into literature departments, where the emphasis was on literary theory.
Queer theory soon developed, challenging the "socially constructed" categories of sexual identity.
The first undergraduate course in the United States on LGBTQ studies was taught at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
in the spring of 1970.
[ McNaron, Toni A.H., ''Poisoned Ivy: Lesbian and Gay Academics Confronting Homophobia.'' Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1997. ] It was followed by similar courses in the fall of 1970 at
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) is a public university in Edwardsville, Illinois. SIUE was established in 1957 as an extension of Southern Illinois University Carbondale.Butler 1976, p. 18 It is the younger of the two major inst ...
and at the
University of Nebraska–Lincoln
The University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Nebraska, NU, or UNL) is a public land-grant research university in Lincoln, Nebraska. Chartered in 1869 by the Nebraska Legislature as part of the Morrill Act of 1862, the school was known as the Universit ...
(UNL).
According to
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, the
City University of New York
The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...
began the first university program in gay and lesbian studies in 1986.
The
City College of San Francisco
City College of San Francisco (CCSF or City College) is a State school#United States, public community college in San Francisco, California. Founded as a Junior college#United States, junior college in 1935, the college plays an important local ...
claims to be the "First Queer Studies Department in the U.S.",
with English instructor Dan Allen developing one of the first gay literature courses in the country in Fall 1972, and the college establishing what it calls "the first Gay and Lesbian Studies Department in the United States" in 1989.
Then-department chair
Jonathan David Katz
Jonathan David Katz (born 1958) is an American activist, art historian, educator and writer. He is currently Associate Professor of Practice in Art History and Gender, Sexuality & Women's Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.
Biography ...
was the first tenured faculty in queer studies in the country. Hobart and William Smith Colleges in upstate New York were among the first to offer a full-fledged major in LGBTQ Studies in the late 1990s and currently has one of the few tenure lines specifically in a stand-alone
LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use 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 a ...
Studies program as a period when many are being absorbed into Women and Gender Studies programs.
Historians
John Boswell
John Eastburn Boswell (March 20, 1947December 24, 1994) was an American historian and a full professor at Yale University. Many of Boswell's studies focused on the issue of religion and homosexuality, specifically Christianity and homosexuality. ...
and
Martin Duberman
Martin Bauml Duberman (born August 6, 1930) is an American historian, biographer, playwright, and gay rights activist. Duberman is Professor of History Emeritus at Lehman College, Herbert Lehman College in the Bronx, New York City.
Early life
Du ...
made
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
a notable center of lesbian and gay studies in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Each historian published several books on gay history; Boswell held three biennial conferences on the subject at the university, and Duberman sought to establish a center for lesbian and gay studies there in 1985.
However, Boswell died in 1994, and in 1991 Duberman left for the
City University of New York
The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...
, where he founded its
Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies
CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies (formerly known as ''Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies'' or ''CLAGS'') was founded in 1991 by professor Martin Duberman as the first university-based research center in the United States dedicated to the study ...
. A 1993 alumnus gift evolved into the faculty committee-administered Fund for Lesbian and Gay Studies, which developed a listing of courses relevant to lesbian and gay studies called the "Pink Book" and established a small lending library named for Boswell. The committee began to oversee a series of one-year visiting professorships in 1994.
Yale–Kramer controversy
In 1997, writer and
AIDS
Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...
activist
Larry Kramer
Laurence David Kramer (June 25, 1935May 27, 2020) was an American playwright, author, film producer, public health advocate, and gay rights activist. He began his career rewriting scripts while working for Columbia Pictures, which led him to Lo ...
offered his alma mater Yale $4 million (and his personal papers) to endow a permanent, tenured professorship in gay studies, and possibly build a gay and lesbian student center. His requirements were specific, as Yale was to use the money solely for "1) the study of and/or instruction in gay male literature..." including a tenured position, "and/or 2) the establishment of a gay student center at Yale..."
With gender, ethnic and race-related studies still relatively new, then-Yale provost
Alison Richard
Dame Alison Fettes Richard, (born 1 March 1948) is an English anthropologist, conservationist and university administrator. She was the 344th Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, the third Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge since the po ...
said that gay and lesbian studies was too narrow a specialty for a program in perpetuity, indicating a wish to compromise on some of the conditions Kramer had asserted.
Negotiations broke down as Kramer, frustrated by what he perceived to be "homophobic" resistance, condemned the university in a front-page story in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''. According to Kramer, he subsequently received letters from more than 100 institutions of higher learning "begging me to consider them".
In 2001, Yale accepted a $1 million grant from his older brother, money manager
Arthur Kramer
Arthur Kramer (January 10, 1927 − January 26, 2008) was the founding partner of law firm Kramer Levin.
Family
Kramer's relationship with his brother, playwright Larry Kramer, moved into the public sphere with Larry's 1984 play, ''The Normal ...
, to establish the
Larry Kramer Initiative for Lesbian and Gay Studies.
The five-year program aimed to bring in visiting faculty, host conferences and lectures, and coordinate academic endeavors in lesbian and gay studies.
Jonathan David Katz
Jonathan David Katz (born 1958) is an American activist, art historian, educator and writer. He is currently Associate Professor of Practice in Art History and Gender, Sexuality & Women's Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.
Biography ...
assumed the role of executive coordinator in 2002; in 2003 he commented that while women's studies or African American studies have been embraced by American universities, lesbian and gay studies have not.
He blamed institutionalized fear of alienating alumni of private universities, or legislators who fund public ones.
The five-year program ended in 2006.
In June 2009,
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
announced that it will establish an endowed chair in LGBT studies.
Believing the post to be "the first professorship of its kind in the country,"
Harvard President Drew G. Faust called it "an important milestone".
Funded by a $1.5 million gift from the members and supporters of the
Harvard Gay & Lesbian Caucus,
the
F. O. Matthiessen
Francis Otto Matthiessen (February 19, 1902 – April 1, 1950) was an educator, scholar and literary critic influential in the fields of American literature and American studies. His best known work, ''American Renaissance: Art and Expression in ...
Visiting Professorship of Gender and Sexuality is named for a mid-20th century gay Harvard American studies scholar and literary critic who chaired the undergraduate program in history and literature. Harvard Board of Overseers member Mitchell L. Adams said, "This is an extraordinary moment in Harvard's history and in the history of this rapidly emerging field ... And because of Harvard's leadership in academia and the world, this gift will foster continued progress toward a more inclusive society."
Academic field of queer studies
The concept of perverse presentism is often taught in queer studies classes at universities. This is the understanding that queer history cannot and should not be analyzed through contemporary perspectives. Ways to find out how people historically identified can include studying
queer community archives.
While queer studies initially emerged in the North American and, to a lesser extent, European academy and mostly relates to Western contexts, it recently has also developed in other parts of the world. For instance, since the 2000s there has been an emergent field of Queer African Studies, with leading scholars such as Stella Nyanzi (Uganda), Keguro Macharia (Kenya), Zethu Matebeni (South Africa), S.N. Nyeck (Cameroon), Kwame E. Otu (Ghana), and Gibson Ncube (Zimbabwe) contributing to the development of this field. Their work critiques the eurocentric orientation of Western queer studies, and examines the longstanding traditions of sexual and gender diversity, ambiguity and fluidity in African cultures and societies.
Queer studies at non-U.S. universities
Brazil
At
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
The Federal University of Minas Gerais ( pt, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, UFMG) is a federalIn the Brazilian Higher Education context, ''Federal'' does not mean ''collegiate'' (even though most Federal Universities in Brazil enjoy a sim ...
(UFMG) in Brazil there are many initiatives on Queers Studies. UFMG offers a multidisciplinary program on Gender and Sexuality for undergrad students: "Formação Transversal em Gênero e Sexualidade: Perspective Queer/LGBTI"
https://www.ufmg.br/prograd/. In its Faculty of Law, ranked amongst the best in the country, Professor Marcelo Maciel Ramos established in 2014 ''Diverso UFMG - Legal Division of Gender and Sexual Diversity''
www.diversoufmg.com and a study group on Gender, Sexuality and Law, which is now led also by Professor Pedro Nicoli. Diverso UFMG organizes since 2016 the Congress of Gender and Sexual Diversity (Congresso de Diversidade Sexual e de Gênero
www.congressodiverso.com that has become one of the biggest and most important academic events on Women and LGBT studies in Brazil. At the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences, Professor Marco Aurélio Máximo Prado has been running since 2007 Nuh UFMG (Human Rights and LGBT Citizenship Division), a successful initiative on LGBT studies.
China
Fudan University
Fudan University () is a national public research university in Shanghai, China. Fudan is a member of the C9 League, Project 985, Project 211, and the Double First Class University identified by the Ministry of Education of China. It is als ...
, located in Shanghai, China, opened the country's first course on homosexuality and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) prevention in 2003 entitled "Homosexual Health Social Sciences". In an article focusing on this college course, Gao and Gu utilize feedback from participants, detailed interviews with professors, and a review of course documents to discuss China's first course with homosexuality at its core. Their article analyzes the tactics used to create such a course and the strategies used to protect the course from adverse reactions in the press. The authors especially take note of the effects of the course on its attendees and the wider gay community in China. The authors note that "Homosexual Health Social Sciences" was described as a "breakthrough" by ''South China Morning Post'' and ''Friends' Correspondence'', a periodical for gay health intervention. Surveys were given to attendees of the class and many responded that the class helped them understand the homosexual perspective better. One student stated that "Even if we cannot fully understand these people, we need to respect them. That is the basis for real communication." Many of the course attendees admitted that the course changed their lives. One Chinese police officer had been hiding his sexuality his entire life stated "The course really enhanced my quality of life…" Another man who had been prescribed treatment for his homosexuality for 30 years heard talk of the course in a newspaper and expressed "This precious news has relieved my heart."
"Homosexual Health Social Sciences" was developed to be interdisciplinary to cover the social sciences, humanities, and public health. Interdependence on different academic focuses was achieved in the curriculum by covering "Theories of homosexuality and Chinese reality", "homosexual sub-culture" and "Men seeking men (MSM) intervention in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention," in addition to reading literature with gay characters and themes and taking field trips to a gay bar. The article goes on to describe the attendance of this course and its significance by clarifying that the official registration in the class was low, with only one student in 2003 and two in 2004. Officially registered students were not the only people attending the classes though because the course was open to the general public. The average attendance in 2003 was 89.9 and rose to 114 in 2004.
Gao and Gu also reveal the precautions taken by the creators of the course to shelter the new class from harsh criticism. The authors depict the creators' fear of attracting too much negative attention from the Chinese media could adversely affect the course and its continuation. Most coverage on this course at Fudan University was delivered in English at the beginning. This phenomenon was explained by one journalist from China Radio International—Homosexuality is very sensitive issue in Chinese culture so by discussing it in English, it is distanced from the conservative Chinese culture. Fudan University led Chinese academia to develop more comprehensive curriculum that will educate future health care professionals on the needs of more Chinese citizens.
South Africa
On the African continent, South Africa has been setting the trend of developing queer studies. This is partly due to the country's constitutional framework, which explicitly protects against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. One of the leading South African queer studies scholars
Zethu Matebeni, who is an activist, writer, documentary film maker, and academic, working as Professor and South Africa Research Chair in Sexualities, Genders and Queer Studies at the
University of Fort Hare
The University of Fort Hare is a public university in Alice, Eastern Cape, South Africa.
It was a key institution of higher education for Africans from 1916 to 1959 when it offered a Western-style academic education to students from across sub ...
. She curated the volume ''Reclaiming Afrikan: Queer Perspectives on Sexual and Gender Identities'' (2014) and co-edited the book ''Queer in Africa: LGBTQI Identities, Citizenship, and Activism'' (2018).
Many contemporary scholars are theorizing how Queer Studies can address the issue prevalent in academia where the lived experience and issues of white U.S. subjects are centered while the experiences of other identities, specifically non-white, trans, and transnational, are marginalized. The collection of essays in Charting the future of queer studies in communication and critical/cultural studies: new directions and pathways (2021) considers how imperative it is to
["take a transnational and decolonizing turn to move away from solely white and US-centric ways of conceptualizing queer lives and experiences."]
Writings like this are examples of Queer (post)colonial studies as an emerging lens through which to consider how the production of academic knowledge is influenced by domination, oppression, and the history of imperialism and colonialism in order to contribute to the field in ways that "refuse Western heteronormative structures".
Future of Queer Studies
Many contemporary scholars are theorizing how Queer Studies can address the issue prevalent in academia where the lived experience and issues of white U.S. subjects are centered while the experiences of other identities, specifically non-white, trans and transnational, are marginalized. The collection of essays in ''Charting the future of queer studies in communication and critical/cultural studies: new directions and pathways (2021)'' considers how imperative it is to "take a transnational and decolonizing turn to move away from solely white and US-centric ways of conceptualizing queer lives and experiences."
>
Writings like this are examples of Queer (post)colonial studies as an emerging lens through which to consider how the production of academic knowledge is influenced by domination, oppression, and history of imperialism and colonialism in order to contribute to the field in ways that "refuse Western heteronormative structures".
>
See also
*
Gender studies
Gender studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analysing gender identity and gendered representation. Gender studies originated in the field of women's studies, concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics. The field ...
*
Group entity
*
Queer heterosexuality
Queer heterosexuality is heterosexual practice or identity that is controversially called queer. "Queer heterosexuality" is argued to consist of heterosexual, cisgender and allosexual persons who show nontraditional gender expressions, or who adop ...
*
Sexual diversity
Gender and sexual diversity (GSD), or simply sexual diversity, refers to all the diversities of sex characteristics, sexual orientations and gender identities, without the need to specify each of the identities, behaviors, or characteristics that ...
*
Transgender studies
Transgender studies, also called trans studies or trans* studies, is an interdisciplinary field of academic research dedicated to the study of gender identity, gender expression, and gender embodiment, as well as to the study of various issues of ...
*
Women's studies
Women's studies is an academic field that draws on feminist and interdisciplinary methods to place women's lives and experiences at the center of study, while examining social and cultural constructs of gender; systems of privilege and oppress ...
References
: Ahmet Atay (2021) Charting the future of queer studies in communication and critical/cultural studies: new directions and pathways, Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 18:2, vii-xi, DOI: 10.1080/14791420.2021.1907847
Further reading
*Dynes, Wayne R. (ed.) ''Encyclopedia of Homosexuality.'' New York and London, Garland Publishing, 1990
* Halwani, Raja, Carol V. A. Quinn, and Andy Wible (Eds.) ''Queer Philosophy. Presentations of the Society for Lesbian and Gay Philosophy, 1998-2008.'' Amsterdam and New York, NY, Rodopi, 2012
*McRuer, Robert (2006). "Crip Theory: Cultural Signs of Queerness and Disability", New York University Press.
External links
University Queer Programs Undergraduate Journal of Sexual Diversity Studies at the University of Toronto The Rockway Institutefor
LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use 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 a ...
research in the public interest at
Alliant International UniversityThe Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical SocietyTrikster - Nordic Queer Journalcompiled in 2006)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Queer Studies
Studies
*
Postmodernism
Post-structuralism
Studies
LGBT and education
Gender and education