A sexual minority is a group whose sexual identity, orientation or practices differ from the majority of the surrounding society. The term was coined most likely in the late 1960s under the influence of Lars Ullerstam's ground breaking book "The Erotic Minorities: A Swedish View" (Grove, 1966) which came strongly in favor of tolerance and empathy to uncommon varieties of sexuality. The term was used as analogous to ethnic minority.
Initially the term referred primarily to lesbians and gays, bisexuals and transgender people. These four categories (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) are often grouped together under the rubric LGBT.
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Famous quotes containing the word minority:
“If when a businessman speaks of minority employment, or air pollution, or poverty, he speaks in the language of a certified public accountant analyzing a corporate balance sheet, who is to know that he understands the human problems behind the statistical ones? If the businessman would stop talking like a computer printout or a page from the corporate annual report, other people would stop thinking he had a cash register for a heart. It is as simple as that—but that isn’t simple.”
—Louis B. Lundborg (1906–1981)