LGBTQ movements

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) movements are social movements that advocate for the inclusion, recognition, and rights of LGBTQ people and other gender and sexual minorities.

While there is no overarching organization representing all LGBTQ people, numerous advocacy groups, grassroots networks, and community-based organizations work to advance related causes. The earliest known LGBTQ rights organization was the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, founded in Berlin in 1897.

Common goals of LGBTQ movements is equal rights for LGBTQ people. Specific goals include the decriminalization of homosexuality, legal recognition of same-sex relationships, protections against discrimination, and access to gender-affirming healthcare. Some branches of these movements also emphasize cultural visibility, community-building, and liberation from societal systems seen as oppressive, such as heteronormativity and cisnormativity.

Modern LGBTQ movements encompass a wide range of strategies, including political lobbying, street marches and protests, mutual aid, academic research, and artistic expression. These movements are internally diverse, with ongoing debates over tactics, identity, inclusion, and the intersections of gender, sexuality, race, and class.

Sociologist Mary Bernstein writes:

For the lesbian and gay movement, then, cultural goals include (but are not limited to) challenging dominant constructions of masculinity and femininity, homophobia, and the primacy of the gendered heterosexual nuclear family (heteronormativity). Political goals include changing laws and policies to gain new rights, benefits, and protections from harm.

Bernstein emphasizes that LGBTQ activists often pursue both cultural and political goals across the civil and legal spheres.

Like other social movements, LGBTQ movements experience internal conflict over strategy, representation, and direction—particularly regarding education reform and who speaks for the broader community. There is ongoing debate over how much common ground exists among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and other queer individuals, and whether they should pursue shared political goals.