Boi (plural: bois) is a term used within LGBT and butch and femme communities to refer to a person's sexual and gender identity. In lesbian communities, there is an increasing acceptance of gender expression and intersexuality, as well as allowing people to self-identify with labels such as boi. The term may denote a number of possibilities that are not mutually exclusive:

• A younger person who looks and acts like a young, heterosexual male, possibly embodying stereotyped attributes towards casual sex and commitment in relationships, in contrast with the stereotype of the U-Haul lesbian. Bois may not identify as butch, regarding butches as playing a more powerful or responsible role – the "man of the house" – while a boi is still in a freer, younger phase.
• A submissive butch in the BDSM community, or a younger butch in the butch-femme community.
• A young transman, or a transman who is in the earlier stages of transitioning.
• A term of endearment for butches by femmes. It may also be used in the gay community to refer to a younger person – bisexual or gay – who may have effeminate characteristics. The term can also be used by anyone who wishes to distinguish from heterosexual or heteronormative identities.

Boi may also refer to a female-born or female-bodied person—sometimes transsexual, transgendered, or intersexed, sometimes not—that generally does not identify as, or only partially identifies as feminine, female, a girl, or a woman. Some "bois" identify as one or more of these, but they almost always identify as lesbians, dykes, or queers. Many are also genderqueer or practice genderfuck. Bois may prefer a range of pronouns, including "he", "she", or gender-neutral pronouns such as "hir", "sie", "zie", and "ey". The term has found increasing usage in the larger LGBT culture.

See also

• List of transgender-related topics
• Tomboy
• Twink

References

External links

• Butch-Femme
• Where the bois are
• Bianca James on [[The Tyra Banks Show] discussing "girlfags" (gay men trapped in women's bodies), genderfuck, and the subculture of boi's] (at the 7:15 mark in the video)