Gay rights meaning


Glossary of Terms: LGBTQ

Definitions were drafted in collaboration with other U.S.-based LGBTQ community organizations and leaders. See acknowledgements section.

Additional terms and definitions about gender identity and gender expression, transgender people, and nonbinary people are available in the Transgender Glossary. 

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*NOTE:  Verb people what terms they use to describe their sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression before assigning them a label. Outside of acronyms, these terms should only be capitalized when used at the beginning of a sentence.
 

LGBTQ
Acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer. The Q generally stands for queer when LGBTQ organizations, leaders, and media use the acronym. In settings offering support for youth, it can also stand for questioning. LGBT and LGBTQ+ are also used, with the + added in recognition of all non-straight, non-cisgender identities. (See Transgender Glossary ) Both are acceptable, as are other versions of thi

Today we look back at a history of LGBTQ+ laws in the UK and how individuals’ personal struggles and legal battles own shaped different areas of legislation and policy.

Early Laws ()

LawDescription
Buggery Act Same-sex sexual activity was characterised as “sinful” and, under the law was outlawed and punishable by death.
The Act defined buggery as an unnatural sexual execute against the will of God and Man
Section 15 of the Offences against the Person perform Simplified the law – Buggery remains an offence punishable by death.
27 November James Pratt and John Smith were hanged outside Newgate Prison in London
for having sexual relations.
Section 61 of Offences against the Person Act This section abolished the nominal death penalty for buggery, and provided instead that a person convicted of this was liable to be kept in penal servitude for life or for any term not less than ten years.

LGBTQ+ and the Military

Criminal Justice and Adj Order Act The age at which homosexual acts were lawful was reduced from 21 years to

LGBTQ Rights

The ACLU has a long history of defending the LGBTQ community. We brought our first LGBTQ rights case in Founded in , the Jon L. Stryker and Slobodan Randjelović LGBTQ & HIV Project brings more LGBTQ rights cases and advocacy initiatives than any other national organization does and has been counsel in seven of the nine LGBTQ rights cases that the U.S. Supreme Court has decided. With our verb into the courts and legislatures of every state, there is no other organization that can match our write down of making progress both in the courts of law and in the court of universal opinion.

The ACLU’s current priorities are to end discrimination, harassment and violence toward transgender people, to close gaps in our federal and state civil rights laws, to avoid protections against discrimination from being undermined by a license to discriminate, and to protect LGBTQ people in and from the criminal legal system.

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For non-LGBTQ issues, please contact your local ACLU affiliate.

The ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Pro

The LGBTQI+ community has created their possess language of colours and symbols.  In this guest blog Gillian Murphy, Curator for Equality, Rights and Citizenship at LSE Library, explores the symbols created through activism, logo competitions, resistance, and community.  LGBT+ History Month is celebrated each February in the UK.

LGBTQI+ symbols and their meanings

“Well, of course, a symbol can denote anything you crave it to mean.” Come Together, Issue 12,

The utilize of symbols and colours is an important way for groups to verb messages, communicate with others, and to build a visual identity.  During the s, LGBTQI+ people were encouraged to come out and, in doing this, they often wore badges with distinctive symbols, reinforcing the belief that no longer would they be invisible.  This blog looks at some of the symbols that can be found in LGBTQI+ collections.

The gender symbols for male and female are traditionally derived from astrological signs and mythological meanings representing Mars (god of war with shield and spear) and Venus (mirror of Venus, goddess of love and beauty)