Abstinence-Only Programs
Sex education programs that do not teach safe sex (such as the use of condoms) but instead teach that people should abstain from sex altogether.
Bathhouse
A commercial space frequented by men looking for sex with other men.
Bowers v. Hardwick
A 1986 Supreme Court case that upheld the constitutionality of laws criminalizing sodomy, including sex between members of the same sex.
Counterpublic
A community or subculture that forms in opposition to the norms of a society. Queer publics are an example of a counterpublic.
Cruising
Searching for a sexual partner, especially in a public space like a part of a park that is frequented by gay men.
Defense of Marriage Act
A law passed in 1996 that defined marriage, for federal purposes, as between a man and a woman, effectively making same-sex marriage illegal at a national level.
HIV/AIDS
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), the last stage of infection caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), weakens the immune system to such an extent that people can die of opportunistic infections like the flu. In the United States, HIV disproportionately affects men who have sex with men, and the epidemic reached a peak in the 1980s.
Human Rights Campaign
An LGBT civil rights campaign that was founded in 1980 and is the largest such organization in the United States today.
In-Group Purification
A process in which members of a stigmatized group might try to deal with their shame by scapegoating others within the group who seem to them more shameful than they are.
LGBT
An acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, used to name a coalition of people who are marginalized by heterosexual culture.
Mattachine Society
An early gay rights organization founded in 1950 that advocated for the tolerance of gays and lesbians in mainstream American society.
McCarthyism
Originally related to Senator McCarthy’s aggressive investigation of communist sympathizers in the Cold War, McCarthyism now refers to any form of witch-hunt of a marginalized or stigmatized group.
Normative
A form of something (e.g. sexual activity) that is idealized in society, whether or not it is actually the “normal” form in the sense of being a statistical average.
Queer
People or behaviors that are at odds with “straight culture,” or the norms of mainstream society.
Queer Space
Places that facilitate queer behaviors, such as gay bars, cruising grounds, and bathhouses.
Safe Sex
In the context of HIV prevention, sex that reduces or eliminates the exchange of fluids, such as sex with condoms.
Sodomy
Oral or anal sex. Although sodomy refers to this kind of sex whether heterosexual or homosexual, laws against sodomy are usually used to target homosexual behavior.
Stigma
A permanent type of shame that becomes an identity attached to people.
Stonewall Riots
A series of events in 1969 when transgendered and queer people fought back against a police raid on a gay bar, the Stonewall Inn. The riots are often seen as a symbolic start to the modern LGBT movement.
Vanilla
Refers to sex that does not involve “kink,” most notably sex that does not include bondage, domination, or sadomasochism (BDSM).
