Community Organizations Research

Prepared by: Brent Stansell

This research area is divided into three categories: national or statewide organizations, local community organizations, and regional theatre companies representing LGBT people and causes. Very few national or statewide organizations use an acronym in their names, but most use the LGBT or GLBT acronym to address their constituencies on their websites. Out of a sampling of 65 organizations, 16 did not use the LGBT or GLBT acronym. Other acronyms included LGBTQ, LGBTQ/Q, LGBTQI, LGBTI, LGBTIQ, LGBT/S; added additions to the acronym were used such as allied or families; other groups never used an acronym.

Community organizations demonstrated much more variety in their names and frequently did not include an acronym. From a sampling of 64 local community organization websites, 39 groups did not use the LGBT or GLBT acronym. Other variations included (in addition to those listed above): GLBTQQ, LGBTQQA, and GLBTIQQA. Some used no acronym at all while others used Queer. The “Q” was much more prevalent in youth groups and stood for either Queer or Questioning or both.

In a sampling of 19 theatre organizations, 8 used the word Queer, 3 used both Queer and LGBT, 5 used only gay and lesbian or LGBT, and 3 did not use an acronym or term to identify their constituencies.