Boi (plural: bois) is a term used within LGBT and butch and femme communities to refer to a person's sexual and gender identity.[1][2] 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.[3][4][5] The term may denote a number of possibilities that are not mutually exclusive:[6]
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.[7]
A young transman, or a transman who is in the earlier stages of transitioning.[7]
A term of endearment for butches by femmes.[7] It may also be used in the gay community to refer to a younger person – bisexual or gay – who may have effeminate characteristics.[7] The term can also be used by anyone who wishes to distinguish from heterosexual or heteronormative identities.[7]
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.[8] 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".[9] The term has found increasing usage in the larger LGBT culture.
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)
