Stereotyping is something the LGBTQ+ community experiences constantly. It happens in day-to-day life, on social media, in person, or even in movies and TV shows. Here are some common stereotypes and why unrepresentative stereotyping of large groups of people needs to end.
Common stereotypes
Lesbian stereotypes:
Lesbians are often stereotyped as preying on straight women and trying to “turn them gay”. People commonly believe that they live dark, sad lifestyles and hate men. This stereotype heavily exercises the belief that women need a man to be complete, which is misogynistic. They also act as if gay people are trying to turn straight people gay, which is completely false. Sometimes, a gay person might ask out a straight person not knowing that they are straight. But that doesn’t mean that they are trying to “turn” them-- it’s simply an honest mistake.
Gay men stereotypes:
Gay men are infamously stereotyped as being feminine and having amazing fashion sense. While this is a more positive stereotype, it has a negative impact because masculine gay men may experience discrimination for not appearing “gay enough”.
Bisexual stereotypes:
Bisexual people are stereotyped as being indecisive, as they cannot “choose” a gender to like. Many also assume that being bisexual is just a phase and a stop on the way to figuring out that they are gay. Bisexual people are always assumed to not be faithful to their partners or want “threesomes” because they like multiple genders.
Transgender stereotypes
A lot of transgender people are told that they are just confused, and might be gay instead of trans. Another inaccurate stereotype is that all transgender people were born in the wrong body, and therefore go through some kind of surgery to change their biological sex. Transgender people are expected to adhere to rigid beauty standards for their gender identity. While a decent percentage prefer to do that, it is completely a choice, not a requirement.
Why do these stereotypes need to stop?
Many of these stereotypes include harmful beliefs about LGBTQ+ people. Although some of these myths are a bit more “positive”, they can still do just as much damage. These stereotypes cause cis/heterosexual people to expect something of LGBTQ+ individuals in order to take them legitimately. People part of the community don’t owe cis/het people anything, and should not have to fit the stereotypes attributed to them.
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