Queer erasure orLGBTQ erasure refers to the tendency to intentionally or unintentionally removeLGBTQ groups or people from record, or downplay their significance, which includeslesbian,gay,bisexual,transgender, andqueer people.[1][2] This erasure can be found in a number of written and oral texts, including popular and scholarly texts.
Queer historianGregory Samantha Rosenthal refers to queer erasure in describing the exclusion ofLGBTQ history from public history that can occur in urban contexts viagentrification.[3] Rosenthal says this results in the "displacement of queer peoples from public view".[4] Cáel Keegan describes the lack of appropriate and realistic representation of queer people,HIV-positive people, and queerpeople of color as being a type of aesthetic gentrification, where space is being appropriated from queer people's communities where queer people are not given any cultural representation.[5]
Erasure of LGBTQ people has taken place in medical research and schools as well, such as in the case ofAIDS research that does not include lesbian populations.[citation needed] Medicine andacademia can be places where visibility is produced or erased, such as the exclusion of gay and bisexual women inHIV discourses and studies or the lack of attention to LGBTQ identities in dealing withanti-bullying discourse in schools.[citation needed]
Straightwashing is a form of queer erasure that refers to the portrayal of LGBTQ people, fictional characters, or historical figures as heterosexual.[6] It is most prominently seen in works of fiction, whereby characters who were originally portrayed as or intended to be homosexual, bisexual, or asexual are misrepresented as heterosexual.[7][8]
In its most extreme form, bisexual erasure can include the belief that bisexuality itself does not exist, and that individuals who identify as bisexual are eitherheterosexual orhomosexual.[9][11][12] People who believe that bisexuality does not exist typically claim that bisexuals are simply confused, or in denial, about their own sexuality. In the case of bisexual men, this commonly manifests in a stereotype that bisexual men are simply closetedgay men.[13] Bisexual individuals are also sometimes dismissed or stereotyped ashypersexual.[14]
Bisexual erasure is often a manifestation ofbiphobia,[9][10][11] although it does not necessarily involve overt antagonism. Erasure frequently results in bisexual-identifying individuals experiencing a variety of adverse social encounters, as they not only have to struggle with finding acceptance within general society but also within theLGBTQ community.[15] Bisexual erasure is a form ofstigma and leads to adverse mental health consequences for people who identify as bisexual, or similar.[16][17]
Lesbian erasure is a form oflesbophobia that involves the tendency to ignore, remove, falsify, or reexplain evidence oflesbian women or relationships in history, academia, the news media, and other primary sources.[18][19] Lesbian erasure also refers to instances wherein lesbian issues, activism, and identity is deemphasized or ignored withinfeminist groups,[20] or theLGBTQ community.[18][19]
In 2007,Julia Serano discussestrans-erasure in thetransfeminist bookWhipping Girl. Serano says thattransgender people are "effectively erased from public awareness" due to the assumption that everyone iscisgender (non-transgender) or that transgender identification is rare.[21] The notion of transgender erasure has been backed up by later studies.[22]
In 2025, transgender erasure has intensified, particularly in the United States, due to significant policy shifts and executive actions. On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump issuedExecutive Order 14168, titled "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government." This order mandates federal agencies to recognize only two sexes, male and female, as determined at conception, effectively disregarding the existence of transgender and nonbinary identities.[23]
Following this directive, numerous federal agencies have removed references to transgender individuals from their materials. For instance, the National Park Service eliminated mentions of transgender people from theStonewall National Monument's website, altering the acronym "LGBTQ+" to "LGB."[24] Similarly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) expunged information related to transgender health from its resources and withdrew funding from research projects that promoted what the administration called "gender ideology."[25]
Aromantic people are often erased due to the societal expectation that everyone prospers with an exclusive romantic relationship, something thatElizabeth Brake has coined as the termamatonormativity. Aromantic people face continued pressure and prejudice to conform to the "social norms" and form a permanent romantic relationship such as marriage.[26][27]
Intersex andtransgender individuals are often erased in public health research which conflates sex andgender(seesex–gender distinction).[28] The narrow and inflexible definitions of sex and gender in some countries means some intersex andnon-binary people are unable to obtain accurate legal documents or identification, preventing their access to public spaces, jobs, housing, education and basic services.[29] It is only recently that the concept oflegal rights for intersex people has been considered,[30] even in LGBTI activist circles. However, there is a growingintersex activist community which campaigns for intersex human rights, and againstintersex medical interventions which they see as unnecessary and mistreatment.[31]
^Scot, Jamie (2014). "A revisionist history: How archives are used to reverse the erasure of queer people in contemporary history".QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking.1 (2):205–209.doi:10.14321/qed.1.2.0205.S2CID154539718.
^Mayernick, Jason; Hutt, Ethan (June 2017). "US Public Schools and the Politics of Queer Erasure".Educational Theory.67 (3):343–349.doi:10.1111/edth.12249.ISSN0013-2004.
^Mueller, Hannah (April 2018). "Queer TV in the 21st Century: Essays on Broadcasting from Taboo to Acceptance. Ed. Kylo-Patrick R.Hart. McFarland, 2016. 232 pp. $35.00 paperback".The Journal of Popular Culture.51 (2):550–553.doi:10.1111/jpcu.12662.ISSN0022-3840.
^Klesse, Christian (2011). "Shady Characters, Untrustworthy Partners, and Promiscuous Sluts: Creating Bisexual Intimacies in the Face of Heteronormativity and Biphobia".Journal of Bisexuality.11 (2–3):227–244.doi:10.1080/15299716.2011.571987.S2CID144102905.
^Morrison, Tessalyn; Dinno, Alexis; Salmon, Taurica (19 August 2021). "The Erasure of Intersex, Transgender, Nonbinary, and Agender Experiences by Misusing Sex and Gender in Health Research".American Journal of Epidemiology.190 (12):2712–2717.doi:10.1093/aje/kwab221.ISSN0002-9262.PMID34409983.
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