Columnist Brent Hartinger observed that "big-budget Hollywood movies until, perhaps, Philadelphia in 1993 that featured major gay male characters portrayed them as insane villains and serial killers".
[7] Community members organized protests and boycotts against films with murderous LGBT characters, including Cruising (1980), Silence of the Lambs (1991), and Basic Instinct (1992).
[8] Theatre scholar Jordan Schildcrout has written about the recurrence of the "homicidal homosexual" in American plays but notes that LGBT playwrights themselves have appropriated this negative stereotype to confront and subvert homophobia.
[9] Such plays include The Lisbon Traviata (1985) by Terrence McNally, Porcelain (1992) by Chay Yew, The Secretaries (1993) by the Five Lesbian Brothers, and The Dying Gaul (1998) by Craig Lucas.
[13] Due to negative characterizations of bisexuality, media personalities are often reluctant to share their identity with the public, leading to reduced visibility.
Rock musician David Bowie famously declared himself bisexual in an interview with Melody Maker in January 1972, a move coinciding with the first shots in his campaign for stardom as Ziggy Stardust.
[19] Theatre, specifically Broadway musicals, is a component of another stereotype, the "show queen", which generalizes that gay men are involved with the performing arts, and are theatrical, overly dramatic, and camp.
[30] Recent research by Cox and colleagues demonstrated that "gaydar" is often used as an alternate label for using stereotypes, especially those related to appearance and mannerisms, to infer orientation.
Before the Stonewall riots in 1969, most LGBT people were extremely private and closeted, and house parties, bars, and taverns became some of the few places where they could meet, socialize, and feel safe.
The riots represented the start of the modern LGBT social movement and acceptance of sexual and gender minorities, which has steadily increased since.
In cities where there are large populations of LGBT people, benefits and bar fundraisers are still common, and alcohol companies invest heavily in LGBT-oriented marketing.
[42] Film scholar Robin Wood called David Lynch's Dune (1984) "the most obscenely homophobic film I have ever seen"[43] – referring to a scene in which Baron Harkonnen sexually assaults and kills a young man by bleeding him to death – charging it with "managing to associate with homosexuality in a single scene physical grossness, moral depravity, violence, and disease.
While PNP probably had its genesis in the distinct subculture of methamphetamine users, and is most associated with its use, it has become somewhat generalized to include partying with other drugs thought to enhance sexual experiences, especially MDMA, GHB, and cocaine.
[48] Representatives for Drugscope state that methamphetamine use is relatively unknown in the UK outside this PNP subculture, and it largely occurs in the heavy-end party scene.
[58] However, at the same time, the series came under heavy criticism for reinforcing numerous other negative stereotypes, such as lesbians preying on and seducing straight women in relationships with men; mistreating bisexual women or outright shunning them if they had a history of sleeping with men (to the point where Alice Pieszecki, a bisexual character, refers to bisexuality as "gross"); for downplaying the main characters' misdeeds and unexplained tendency for adultery and instead focusing on their physical beauty and sex scenes; for randomly killing off main characters for no specific reason (referred to as "bury your gays"); for downplaying a rape scene as "angry sex";[59] reportedly attempting to "reify heteronormativity";[60] for depicting lesbianism or bisexuality as a gene passed from mothers to daughters which sometimes caused both to fight over the same woman (as demonstrated in the cases of Lenore and Alice Pieszecki, Cherie and Clea Jaffe, Peggy and Helena Peabody, Phyllis and Molly Kroll, an instance when Shane had sex with a mother and her two daughters separately on one of the daughters' wedding day, which led to all three of them falling in love with Shane and subsequently falling out with each other, and ultimately Tina and Angelica Kennard in the sequel series, The L Word: Generation Q); and showing lesbian relationships as destined to fail due to lesbians' apparent struggles with monogamy and commitment.
[75] Trans men, conversely, are often stereotyped as being cuter, more feminine, and more passive than their cisgender counterparts, being classified as "softboys" (also spelled "softbois" or "softybois").
Sandor Ference (1914) believed that heterosexual women's feelings of repulsion toward those identifying as lesbians was a reaction formation and defense mechanism against affection from the same sex.
[89][90] These stereotypes can be observed in many forms of media, notably pornography, which depicts Black gay men as sexual predators who are capable of satisfying fantasies of extreme domination.
Black femmes are characterized as hypersexual, submissive women who lack substance and, in conformity with traditional feminine gender norms, are obsessed with outward appearance (i.e., clothes, hair, makeup).
[94] However, due to their subordinate position in the dominant racial and gender hierarchy, Black women remain vulnerable to misogynoir–regardless of perceived or actual sexual orientation.
[96] Hispanic and Latino gay men and women often experience difficulty coming out in their communities due to cultural values based on heterosexism or the presumption that heterosexual relationships and sexual behavior are the societal norm.
[97] A dominant stereotype of Hispanic and Latino family structures is that they are centered on the "macho" man who determines appropriate forms of masculinity and femininity.
[97] Due to their sexuality, gay men and women are perceived to be at odds with traditional Hispanic and Latino structures that assign gender roles and are discriminated against as a result.
However, the emerging popularity of Latin American Liberation Theology has empowered young gay men and women to redefine religion and spirituality on their own terms, come out, and confront heterosexism.
[91] Additionally, Hispanic and Latino gay men are subject to gender stereotypes within their ethnic community that largely influence their sexual behavior.
As gay women of color, they are characterized as seductive and sensual individuals with a fiery or "spicy" disposition who exist to satisfy heterosexual male desire.
Throughout the series, Santana is depicted as a "straight-up bitch" who engages in verbal and physical altercations with others and has had numerous sexual and romantic relationships with male and female protagonists.
[105] While this form of invisibility may offer a certain degree of protection from active prejudice, it also makes it difficult for the negative experiences of the Asian community—such as racism and discrimination—to be recognized.
[105] As a result, Asians are frequently excluded from discussions of race, which are generally framed around a White/Black dichotomy, and marginalized within the mostly-white LGBT community and movement at large.
While Japanese culture heavily discourages interest in homosexual fiction matching the reader's sex, certain publications, such as manga magazine Yuri Hime, have repeatedly reported their dominant consumers as the same gender as portrayed for most of their operational life.