This article combines the sociology of the state and of public policy with LGBT studies in order to analyze how the social and political status of gender and sexual minorities have been changing due to the partial and controversial recognition of their rights. Western states build their power over populations through identifications and classifications based on gender and sexuality. Over the last decades, the repertoire of repression, exclusion, and invisibilization declined in favor of equality and non-discrimination standards. Therefore, the citizenship of LGBTI individuals is in tension between disregard and pressure to come out, as well as between discrimination and recognition. Their experiences of public services – both as public officials and as clients – vary greatly depending on the organizational and relational contexts, as well as on their positions within other sources of privilege and disadvantage. As a result, their social status is still fragile.