Just out of interest, how many of us have been called a militant homosexual, or even a militant gay for standing up for the rights of the LGBT+ community? It's happened to me a few times and usually on social media. In reality, I'm much less 'militant' than some people I know.
I want to be a "militant", but I'm so deep in the closet that it is impossible. My socially conservative family knows that I'm progressive, but they have no clue that I'm a lesbian. I have deeply held values about the environment that my entourage accuses me of being a militant. I envy those that are comfortable enough with themselves to be out and militant about LGBT+ issues.
I've heard the term used meaning "very stereotypical", but not in this way. I haven't been called militant, but occasionally I can tell people think I'm making (LGBT+) issues out of nothing
I'm pretty vocal and have been for decades but I don't think I've ever been called militant. I wonder if perhaps the UK has a better class of bigots than we do here in the States.
Almost thirty years ago when I came out it felt like just existing was militant. I definitely got called worse things than militant.
I'm chiming in because I saw the word militant and my knee jerk reaction is to dislike anything militant. This can cause confusion. Some of us are private and usually not into confrontation, but it took so called militant people to push for the rights of any and all minorities - sexual minorities included. We owe these so called militant people a lot. Yet we don't see ourselves as militant because we aren't and don't want to be. Like I said, this can easily confusion. Maybe there's more than one kind of militant. Militant to advance agendas that help the oppressed is a good form of militant. Militant to tell someone what they should do and what they should think so that they fit into someone's definition of a what a so called real member of a specific community or sub-group should be like is irritating, and even trespasses healthy boundaries.
The person who characterised me as a "militant homosexual" was trying to get a rise out of me, which didn't work. Admittedly, I can be outspoken, especially when it comes to LGBT+ rights, but militancy really is something else. It just made me curious to hear other people's views.