Sexuality and gender identity-based cultures

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Sexuality and gender identity-based cultures concern the behaviors, beliefs, knowledge, and references shared by members of sexual minorities or transgendered people by virtue of their membership in those minorities.

Among the first to argue that members of sexual minorities can constitute cultural minorities as well as being just individuals were Adolf Brand, Magnus Hirschfeld and Leontine Sagan in Germany. These pioneers were followed later, in the USA, by the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis.

Not all members of a particular sexual minority participate in, or are aware of, the subculture that may be associated with that minority. In addition to simply not knowing that the culture exists, non-participants may be geographically or socially isolated, they may feel stigmatized by the subculture, they may simply dislike it (feeling it is outdated, corrupted, or does not align with their personal taste or style), or they may prefer to affiliate with some other culture or subculture.

See also: separatism, discrimination.

Sexual orientation and gender identity-based cultures (LGBT)

Sexual minorities defined by sexual orientation and gender identity — lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people — are often seen as having a common culture, which can be called LGBT culture, Queer culture, or gay culture. In academia, when discussing works of literary or artistic value, the term used is often 'homoeroticism'. (We will use the term LGBT culture in this article. The term Queer is perceived by many to be political or objectionable, although others use it as the primary description of their sexual minority culture. We will reserve the term "gay culture" for gay men's culture.)

The idea is quite contentious. Some argue that there are too many LGBT people who do not participate in this culture for the idea to be meaningful, or that the culture constitutes a stereotype or is associated with only a radical minority.

Others argue that LGBT culture is an undeniable fact, and/or that it constitutes the basis of a LGBT nation with a common understanding and history.

The existence of a larger community including gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people has also been questioned by noting the exclusion of some of these groups by others; for example, biphobia among gays and lesbians, transphobia among non-trans LGB people, or lack of inclusiveness of lesbians in gay milieux. For example some cities, specifically in North America, have separate neighbourhoods for gay men and for lesbians.

A response could be that, although these sorts of prejudice and exclusion exist among part of the community, they do not necessarily impede members of all of the groups from participating in a common culture.

It ought to be remembered, further, that LGBT culture is often intensely marked by geography and surrounding culture. What may often be thought of as "LGBT culture" may be peculiar to North America and/or Europe, and not found among other LGBT communities around the world.

Elements often identified as being common to the culture of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered people include:

• The work of famous gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people. This may include:
  • Present-day LGBT artists and political figures;
  • Historical figures who have been identified as LGBT. It has often been questioned whether it is appropriate to identify historical figures using modern terms for sexual identity (see History of sexuality). However, many LGBT people feel a kinship towards these people and their work, especially to the extent that it deals with same-sex attraction or gender identity.
• An understanding of the history of LGBT political movements.
• An ironic appreciation of things linked by stereotype to LGBT people.
• Figures and identities that are present in the LGBT community; in Euro-American LGBT culture, this could include the gay village, drag kings and queens, Pride, and the rainbow flag.

LGBT communities organize a number of events to celebrate their culture, such as Pride parades, the Gay Games and Southern Decadence --the largest LGBT street fair celebration in North America.

Gay male culture

Historically, and specifically in the last century, American culture as a whole (but also Europe and Latin America) has focused much more heavily on gay men than on other members of the LGBT community. This may be due to larger numbers of men than women or transgender people (in so far as you would call it that) coming out, it may be due to gay men typically being more brash in their coming out (and having more resources available to them to justify, explore and perform their sexuality), or it may be due to Western culture as a whole still seeing men and male experience as the central experience in culture, even if the men in question are transgressing established gender norms. Research into lesbian histories and cultures is fledgling by comparison. Indeed it may be argued that gay men have, in certain circles, enjoyed a peculiarly privileged relationship to cultural production, by comparison with lesbians, trans people and some might argue women in general. The subject is open to debate, but gay male culture is often better known to lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people than those groups' particular cultures may be known to gay men.

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. Gay influence in early America was mostly limited to high culture. The association of gay men with opera, ballet, professional sports, couture, fine cuisine, musical theater, the Golden Age of Hollywood, and interior design began with wealthy homosexual men using the straight themes of these media to send their own signals. In the very heterocentric Marilyn Monroe film vehicle Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, a musical number features a woman singing while muscled men in revealing costumes dance around her. The men's costumes were designed by a man, the dance was choreographed by a man, and the dancers seem more interested in each other than in the female star, but her reassuring presence gets the sequence past the censors and fits it into an overall heterocentric theme.

After the Stonewall riots in the United States in 1969, gay male culture began to be publicly acknowledged for the first time. Some gay men formed the Violet Quill society, which focused on writing about gay experience as something central and normal in a story for the first time, rather than as a "naughty" sideline to a mostly straight story. A good example is the short story A Boy's Own Story by Edmund White. In this first volume of a trilogy, White writes as a young homophilic narrator growing up under the shadow of a corrupt and remote father. The young man learns bad habits from his straight father and applies them to a gay existence.

Throughout the 1970s, gay male culture was a growing influence on American pop culture as a whole. Celebrities such as Liza Minnelli spent a significant amount of their social time with urban gay men, who were now popularly viewed as sophisticated and stylish by the jet set. And more celebrities themselves, such as Andy Warhol, were open about their relationships. Such openness was still limited to the largest urban areas, however, until AIDS forced several popular celebrities out of the closet due to their contraction of what was known at first as a "gay cancer".

Some elements that may be identified more closely with gay men than with other groups include:

• pop-culture gay icons who have had a traditionally gay male following (for example, in Euro-American gay culture, disco, Madonna, Judy Garland, and so forth);
• familiarity with certain aspects of romantic, sexual, and social life that have been common among gay men (for example, in Euro-American gay culture, Polari, poppers, camp, and the fag hag; in Indian gay culture, evening people).

There are a number of subcultures within gay male culture, such as bears, chubbies, and gay skinheads. There are also subcultures that have historically had a large gay male population, such as the leather and SM subcultures.

There are also a lot of gay men who don't follow any of these subcultures, don't follow so-called gay fashions or worship gay icons. Gay men are individuals, and can't be identified by the way they look or what kind of music they like. There are gay men in every field imaginable, and into all sorts of fashions and music. The trendy gays who frequent certain gay clubs/discos and Gay Pride festivals are not necessarily typical of the average gay man in the country, many of whom are to some extent still in the closet. Not least because the commercial gay scene with its very limited range of music/fashions/gay icons etc. excludes everyone who doesn't fit in with this image. This could be described as 'gay fascism' - if a gay man prefers long hair, a 1950s quiff, a mohawk, dreadlocks or liberty spikes to a shaved head or a #1 cut he may feel unwelcome in many gay venues. A gay man into Rockabilly, 1950s Rock'n'Roll or Blues, hot rods and the Teddy-boy/Rockabilly look, for instance, might find little of appeal on the commercial gay scene. The Queercore movement as well as the group Gay shame critiques the commercialization of gay society.

Groups critical of the sex-orientated part of contemporary gay male culture also exists, most recently in gay activist Larry Kramer's 2005 book The Tragedy of Today's Gays.

On-Line Culture and Communities

From the mid-1990's, gay IRC channels emerged, with their content ranging the full spectrum from social networking to immediate arrangements for sexual contact.

More recently, a number of on-line social interaction websites for gay men have been established. Initially, these concentrated on sexual contact or titillation. Typically, users were afforded a profile page as well as access to other members' pages, member-to-member messaging and instant-message chat.

Smaller, more densely-connected websites concentrating on social networking without a focus on sexual contact have been established. Some forbid all explicit sexual content; others do not.

This section is a stub. You can help by expanding it.

Significance of On-Line Social Networking to the Gay Population

On-line sexual contact sites for gay men have already altered dramatically the sexual behaviour of a large proportion of the gay population of regions where these sites are strongly patronised. There are signs that on-line social networking communities for gay men are also having a more profound impact on gay culture than their 'straight' equivalent sites.

This section is a stub. You can help by expanding it.

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