The LGBT movement has significantly marked the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. Through a great diversity of social and political struggles they have managed to make visible experiences, desires, knowledge, discomforts and feelings that had long been denied and pathologized.

On the other hand, the history of the LGBT and LGTBI movement is very long and can be approached from very different starting points. Below are some of the events that marked its beginning and development in the West.

What does LGBT mean?

The acronym LGBT refers to both a collective and a political movement , the letters of which mean: Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender. These last words refer precisely to people who assume and recognize themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

Although the history of this movement is older, the LGTB concept became particularly popular from the 1990s onwards. Among other things, it has replaced the term “gay community”, which although it was vindictive and very important at one time, had also left other identities and sexualities in silence.

The use of the term LGBT has made it possible to emphasize the diversity of sexual and gender identities , which means that it can be applied to many people, regardless of whether their bodies have been sexed as female or male.

Where does diversity end? The LGTBI claim

Other struggles and identities have also been added to these political demands. From this, the letters of the term LGBT have increased. For example, the letter “T” has been added, which refers to transsexuality; the letter “I” refers to intersexuality; and the letter “Q” refers to people and the “Queer” or “Cuir” movement, in Spanish.

Specifically, this last category has made it possible that, although some people who do not feel identified with any of the previous identities (lesbian-gay-bisexual-transsexual-transgender-intersexual), they can share spaces for claiming and fighting for diversity in equal opportunities . This is much more complex and even problematic. First, because the metaphor of “trans” has spread a sometimes deterministic conception about changes in gender identity (for example, that there is a pre-established beginning and end), among other complications.

Introductory to this, we can say that transsexuality refers to those who make a body modification to move from one sex-gender to another; while the word “transgender” refers to practices that are also visible in the body, for example in aesthetics, but that do not necessarily include an organic change . In this context, the need to separate the trans by sex or gender has been discussed and has also been problematic

Intersex refers to bodies that share different organs and genetic or phenotypic characteristics that have been attributed by Western biomedicine to women and men in a differentiated way. So, depending on the context we can find both the concept of LGBT, and that of LGBTI, LGBTIIQ, LGBTQ, and perhaps others.

The LGTTBIQ movement arises from many people who have explained that the assigned gender identity does not always correspond to the felt gender identity , so it is valid to defend the complete freedom to claim and live the identity that is felt over the one that is imposed.

First struggles: LGBT rights

There are many versions about the beginning of the movement in the West. One of the most accepted is that it was first used to name the student movements in the 1960s in the United States that demanded the depathologisation of non-normative behaviour and equality of rights .

The development context of the LGTB movements was mainly characterized by the fact that many people reported that they had been systematically made invisible by the norms of heterosexuality. This became visible especially in the United States and Europe, where the feminist movements were also gaining more ground.

But, among other things, these feminist movements had been basically heterosexual , which very soon led many women to publicly claim lesbian identities. This opened up a first point of departure for the vindication of other sexualities that had also been reserved for private space.

We could even go further back and look at some of the antecedents of the early 20th century, when some European intellectuals who had experience of homosexuality, took it upon themselves to write and publish in favour of the legitimisation of their sexual desires and practices.

However, this did not become widespread until those who had also had their rights violated took to the streets in the form of social movements and activism.

Ruptures with Anglo-Saxon feminism

Anglo-Saxon feminisms had made a major break with more traditional gender norms. Nevertheless, they had organized themselves around a very naturalized vision of the gender division , which continued to be binary, and left aside other practices and experiences.

That is, the movements that only positioned themselves in favor of women were remaining on the same oppressive gender base , thus, excluding other identities. For example, homosexuality, lesbianism, trans identities, and all those that do not fit into these categories.

Thus, the LGBT movement had to establish a first break with feminism that had unwittingly ignored other expressions of sexuality. Likewise, while the production of knowledge is always situated in a specific experience and place, some feminists in the lesbian movement had adopted essentialist perspectives that were not useful for other claims and identities.

For example, people who assume they are bisexuals were reproached for not being able to “come out of the closet” in hegemonic terms. Thus, after a period of accommodation, separation and feedback, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender groups were grouped into a single fighting collective .

The term LGBT was probably first used to refer to student activists who went out into these struggles mainly in Europe and the United States from the 1960s onwards, although there are different versions about when it was first used, and also about who was the first person to use it.

From criminalization to pathologization

Sexual and gender identities and practices that are not heterosexual have been criminalized and seriously criminalized in various forms for many centuries. Currently and in the face of the preeminence of biomedical paradigms that position themselves as the social instructors par excellence, as well as through supposed mental pathologies, many of the non-hegemonic gender practices continue to be understood as if they were a pathology .

The protest movements of 1960, and many of the movements today, have fought against the circulation of pejorative, violent and offensive concepts towards non-heterosexual people.

But not only that, but have denounced explicitly violent and repressive practices such as lgtbfobia (which in many cases ends in murder); and other very common, naturalized and apparently innocuous practices such as pathologization.

In fact, it was only after these social movements of vindication led by a large part of the LGBT community itself that homosexuality ceased to be considered a mental pathology by the APA and the WHO. Only 45 and 28 years ago, respectively. What’s more, these struggles are not over, because pathologization as a form of criminalization still exists.

Bibliographic references

  • John and Kermit (2012). History of the LGBT community. Recovered May 18, 2018. Available at http://lgbtdehoy.blogspot.com.es
  • Solá, M. (S/A). The re-politicization of feminism, activism and post-identity microdiscourse. MACBA Publications. Recovered 18 May 2018. Available at https://www.macba.cat/uploads/publicacions/desacuerdos/textos/desacuerdos_7/Miriam_Sola.pdf.