GLBT+Culture

(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
 * Culture of GLBT **

GLBT culture, is the common culture shared by gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer (GLBTQ) people. It is sometimes referred to as Queer culture.

The Rainbow flag **Gay male culture **

"Homosexuality" was the main term used until the late 1950s and early 1960s. After that point, a new "gay" culture came to be. "This new gay culture increasingly marks a full spectrum of social life: not only same-sex desires but gay selves, gay neighbours, and gay social practices that are distinctive of our affluent, postindustrial society".

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, gay culture was highly covert and relied upon secret symbols and codes woven into an overall straight context. There are a number of subcultures within gay male culture, such as the bears and chubbies. There are also subcultures that have historically had a large gay male population, such as the leather and SM subcultures.

**Lesbian culture **

As with gay men, lesbian culture includes elements both from the larger LGBT culture and elements that are specific to the lesbian community. Often thought of in this regard are elements of counterculture that have been primarily associated with lesbians in Europe, Australia/New Zealand and North America and includes large lesbian specific events such as Michigan Womyn's Music Festival and the Club Skirts Dinah Shore Weekend.

The history of lesbian culture over the last half-century has also been tightly entwined with the evolution of feminism. Lesbian separatism is an example of a lesbian theory and practice which identifies specifically lesbian interests and ideas and promotes a specific sort of lesbian culture.

Older stereotypes of lesbian women stressed a dichotomy between women who adhered to stereotypical male gender stereotypes ("butch") and stereotypical female gender stereotypes ("femme"), and that typical lesbian couples consisted of a butch/femme pairing. Today, some lesbian women adhere to being either "butch" or "femme," but these categories are much less rigid and are now uncommon as lesbianism becomes more mainstream. Also notable are diesel dykes, extremely butch women who use male forms of dress and behaviour. Lipstick Lesbian refers to feminine women who are attracted to other women.

**Bisexual culture ** The bisexual pride flag

Bisexual culture emphasizes opposition to or disregard of fixed sexual and gender identity called monosexism (discrimination against bisexual, fluid, pansexual and queer-identified people), bisexual erasure, and biphobia/panphobia (hatred and/or distrust of people who do not adhere to monosexual behaviour). Biphobia is common (although lessening) in both the gay and lesbian community and the straight community.

Many bisexual, fluid and pansexual people consider themselves to be part of the LGBT or Queer community, despite any discrimination they face.

The bisexual pride flag was designed by Michael Page in 1998 in order to give the community its own symbol comparable to the Gay pride flag of the mainstream LGBT community. The deep pink or rose stripe at the top of the flag represents the possibility of same gender attraction; the royal blue stripe at the bottom of the flag represents the possibility of different gender attraction and the stripes overlap in the central fifth of the flag to form a deep shade of lavender or purple, which represents the possibility of attraction anywhere along the entire gender spectrum.

**<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Transgender culture ** <span style="display: block; font-family: 'arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;">Transgender Pride flag <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">The study of transgender culture as such is complicated by the many and various ways in which cultures deal with gender. For example, in many cultures, people who are attracted to people of the same sex — that is, those who in contemporary Western culture would identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual — are classed as a third gender, together with people who would in the West be classified as transgender or transexual. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">In the contemporary West, there are usually several different groups of transgender and transsexual people, some of which are extremely exclusive, like groups only for transsexual women who explicitly want sex reassignment surgery, or male, heterosexual-only cross-dressers. Transmen's groups are often, but not always, more inclusive. Groups aiming at all transgender people, both transmen and transwomen, have in most cases appeared only in the last few years.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Some transgender or transsexual women and men however do not classify as being part of any specific "trans" culture, however there is a distinction between transgender and transsexual people who make their past known to others and those who wish to live according to their gender identity and not reveal this past, stating that they should be able to live in their true gender role in a normal way, and be in control of whom they choose to tell their past to.