Diversity: LGBTQI

The acronym LGBTQI stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, and Intersex. Sometimes letters are added to include Questioning, Two-Spirit, Asexual, and Ally. The term “sexual and gender minorities” (SGM) aims to be a shorter, more inclusive acronym. Representing both global movements and distinct communities, SGM expresses a diversity of identities, belongings, community lives, pride, struggles, and human rights claims for everyone who does not correspond to and/or refuses normative standards of gender, sex, and desire.

Although homophilic activism—as gay and lesbian mobilizations were called at the time—existed before the Stonewall riots, this event marks the emergence of SGM liberation movements. In Greenwich Village, in New York City, homosexual and trans people would gather at the Stonewall Inn, where (because homosexuality and cross-dressing were criminalized) the ...