LGBT Social Movements

Abstract

The study of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) social movements mostly emerges out of the sociological study of social movements, although historians have written a number of texts focusing on the history of the movement. The LGBT movement has transformed dramatically throughout time; contemporary queer politics would be incomprehensible to homophile activists mobilizing after World War II. At any given moment, the movement has diversity within it in terms of participants, agendas, tactics, and collective identities; in the early 1970s, within the one social movement there were lesbian feminists and gay liberationists organizing more radical politics, homophile activists taking more moderate approaches to visibility, and the beginnings of the modern liberal gay rights movements. Scholars tend to focus on the mobilizations, tactics, ideologies, and collective identities of the movements. This bibliography provides an overview of the LGBT movements, sections on major phases of the movement, and sections that provide guidance on law and culture in the movement. The major phases of the movement include the early gay and lesbian homophile organizing, gay liberationist politics, lesbian feminism, AIDS activism, and the modern LGBT movement.