In 1973, the Rainbow Deaf Society was formed to protect the rights and interests of Deaf gays. By the early 2000s, RDS has twenty-four chapters across the U.S. and Canada. The group sponsors a semi-annual conference, along with a variety of other networking services.

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There are many other Deaf gay organizations across the United States, many linked with the Rainbow Alliance for the Deaf. Regionally, Deaf Gays and Lesbians of the West (Deaf GLOW) and the Gay and Lesbian Association of the Deaf--East (GLADE) hold conferences every other year.

Many urban centers boast groups for Deaf queers. San Francisco's Deaf Gay and Lesbian Center, for example, offers counseling and advocacy services. Deaf gay men and lesbians who do not live in urban communities may access services and social connections through online organizations such as Deaf Lesbian Resources Online and the Deaf Queer Resource Center (DQRC).

DQRC is a national information center founded in 1995 by Dragonsani Renferia, a Deaf queer trans activist. Along with offering a website and resource lists, DQRC sponsors such discussion forums as DeafQueer Chat and the Point of View Café. Renferia, is also one of the major organizers behind Coming Together Newsletter, a national Deaf queer newspaper started in 1991, and its offshoot FLASH, a Deaf queer e-zine.

Deaf gay culture can also be found around the world in support groups from the Italian Silent Triangle and the Hong Kong Bauhinias Deaf Club, to the Greenbow of Ireland and the International Deaf Leather Association.

In 1993, the Deaf queer experience became more accessible to the hearing queer world with the publication of Eyes of Desire: A Deaf Gay and Lesbian Reader. Edited by Raymond Luczak, a prolific Deaf gay poet, playwright, and filmmaker, Eyes of Desire is filled with essays and memoirs written by those whose lives are the foundation of Deaf gay and lesbian culture. In 2005, Luczak began seeking submissions for another volume of Eyes of Desire.

Although Deaf queers face challenges--including social isolation, discrimination, and inaccessibility of information--both in the mainstream society and in the larger glbtq community, they bring to the diverse mix of queer culture a unique and valuable cultural identity.

A growing body of scholarly and other work on Cultural Identities challenges the "naturalness," and even the political necessity, of a unitary gay and lesbian identity.

Disabled queers not only face physical obstacles and the prejudices of the larger society, but also sometimes feel marginalized and isolated within the glbtq community.

Marches on Washington in support of the rights of glbtq people have been a significant part of the modern movement for equality.

The largest glbtq political organization in the United States, the Human Rights Campaign has emerged as the leading national organization representing glbtq concerns.

The oldest continuously operating national glbtq interest group, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has played a significant role in the development of the glbtq movement for equal rights.