Gender gap persists between lesbians and gay men

[kweerwolf]

Although they campaign arm-in-arm for gay rights, lesbians and gay men don't always march in step. With bemusement and at times frustration, they acknowledge a lingering gender gap in how they live, socialize and perceive each other.

The two groups each grapple with real differences, and with stereotypes of themselves and the other sex: that gay men are the party-goers, flashy and promiscuous; that lesbians are the relatively dull homebodies — "soccer moms," in the words of one activist.

In San Francisco and New York, nightclubs in the main gay districts tend to be virtually all-male, while many lesbians have settled in quieter, less expensive neighborhoods. Some lesbians question whether gay men, whom they supported fervently during the peak of the AIDS crisis, are reciprocating now with appropriate empathy for lesbian health problems.

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National gay rights leaders — men and women — say the gender gap has narrowed dramatically from the 1960s and '70s, when lesbian feminists openly rebelled at what they considered to be patronizing male domination of the movement. Now, political solidarity is strong, but other differences remain.

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