By Dear Gay People,
Once upon a time, we were simply known as the LGBT community and everyone was happy. The LGBT acronym was effective in the sense that it was easy to remember, received widespread acceptance and managed to cover a sufficiently broad spectrum of sexual orientations (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender).
Unfortunately, the LGBT term soon came under fire for not being inclusive enough as an increasing number of people were unable to define themselves on the spectrum of sexualities provided by the LGBT acronym. And so, some bright geniuses came up with the idea to simply add extra letters to the LGBT term in order to keep everyone happy.
Except the problem wasn’t solved and what was originally intended as a solution became the cause of more problems instead. Those bright geniuses who came up with the solution of adding extra letters probably never anticipated just how many extra letters would be needed and before we knew it, the LGBT term became LGBTQQIP2SAA instead. The extra letters stood for:
Q: Queer. A pointless attempt to take back a derogatory term meant for gay and lesbian people.
Q: Questioning. This term just further fuels the misconception that a person’s sexuality is a choice. Also, if you don’t know what to label yourself as, then just don’t label yourself!
I: Inter-sex: The condition of being intermediate between male and female; hermaphroditism.
P: Pansexual: Someone who is not limited in sexual choice with regard to biological sex, gender, or gender identity.
2S: Two Spirit: A culturally distinct gender that describes Indigenous North Americans who fulfils one of many mixed gender roles found traditionally among many Native Americans and Canadian First Nations indigenous groups.
A: Asexual: Someone who lacks, or completely doesn’t have any sexual attraction to anyone.
A: Allies: THIS IS NOT EVEN A SEXUAL ORIENTATION!!! Yes, straight allies play an important role in the community but it’s quite unnecessary to reward them with an extra letter to recognise their contributions.
Of course, I wasn’t the only one who found it ridiculous and soon, people were having pointless debates over what the LGBT community should call itself. The reason why I called the debates ‘pointless’ was because it was one of those debates that would never be able to arrive at a universal consensus.
You see, labels by itself are problematic by nature. While I completely understand the need for an appropriate descriptor term that minorities can identify themselves with, the result is often overly politically correct and incredibly awkward. For example, people with disabilities had different labels handed to them ranging from ‘handicapped’ to ‘disabled’ to the very awkwardly sounding ‘differently abled’. It’s that same kind of awkward political correctness that’s currently causing the pointless debates over what acronym the LGBT community should call themselves.
Unfortunately, the answer to that is that there’s never going to be an acronym that is sufficiently wide enough to be able to cover every single sexual orientation and minority out there. If we were to accede to the calls to be inclusive for inclusiveness sake, the LGBT label is going to one day stretch to become something along the lines of LGBTQQIP2SAAXYZPJSM.
And that is why we should just stick to the LGBT term which has already seeped into the public consciousness to gain widespread acceptance. For a community that fights so hard against labels, it’s pretty ironic that we feel such a strong need to label ourselves. Instead of taking the LGBT term literally, the LGBT acronym should instead be seen as an umbrella term that covers any and all sexual and gender minorities that deviate from the heterosexual norm. Straight people have enough trouble comprehending any sexuality that deviates from heterosexuality there really is no need to confuse them any further.
At the end of the day, we are all just trying to make this world a better place and that is what we should all be focusing on instead. So that’s why I believe that we need to stop adding letters to the LGBT term or we might as well just add the entire alphabet in there!
You might also like to read:
10 Sexual Orientations You’ve Probably Never Heard Of
Move Over Homophobia, It’s Time To Talk About Biphobia
Ok Fine, Homosexuality Is Totally A Choice!
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Couldnt agree more. LGBT covers the whole range of sexual orientations and genders with bisexual implying anything more than a single gender attraction and transgender that implies any deviation from your birth gender.
LGBT is comprehensive and more importantly short acronym as you said. The LGBT acronym does not perfectly describe everyone in the community but it does a pretty good job. However more importantly it already has brand recognition with the public and is short enough to be easily remembered. Changing the acronym ruins that brand recognition with the public and adding more letters simply makes it harder to remember.
I don’t like LGBT as a term anyway.
Putting different groups together in one box that may have no relationship to each other I find offensive.
AGREED!
I agree. The only this can be properly used is go back to LGB. I’m camping for this.
These crazy ass additions are going to undo 20 years of work. The LGB community needs to distance itself from the trans movement as far and fast as we can
Hi I know you guys won’t like this but I like the term faggot and before you get all up in arms about it let me explain. So I am gay myself and honestly I feel like calling somebody a fag is yes offensive but more like calling somebody straight a prick or a whore, I mean it’s not nice but it is a descriptive term for when somebody is being too far into their stereotypes, for example a guy being a prick would be a total jock douche, aka the stereotypical qualities of a man but amplified in a negative way. In my opinion fag is the gay equivalent, in the end it is a fun swear word that we shouldn’t give so much power by being offended, just my opinion have a nice day.
No way
“Straight people have enough trouble comprehending any sexuality that deviates from heterosexuality there really is no need to confuse them any further”
What patronising rubbish, and I say this as a gay man. I did my bit for gay rights in Ireland in the 1990’s (when it was still illegal). The hard work has already been done.
The young generation almost seem disappointed that they’re not being oppressed and have to invent ever more ridiculous identities in order to have to ‘battle’ the rest of society. Get over yourselves and just live your lives instead of looking for attention.
The T should be dropped and anyway a grouping of labels is negative and I find it offensive
“to the very awkwardly sounding ‘differently abled’.”
actually, it’s not so whatsoever, and it is more accurate and aware! I have worked and studied for two years with children/teens with mild to intermediate cases, and have been around others too before and after, and anyone who has would realise that “differently abled” is an accurate term because yes, there is things you can do and take for granted that they can’t do or not as well, but that goes both ways, as there is things they can do that some of them take for granted and that you can’t or not as well!
to butthead: actually, it’s not the same thing at all. Prick or whore are used to demean and take away the person’s worth, whereas faggot implies what people wanted to do/did/do to non-straight people (faggots are bunches of brindles, twigs, sticks for the fire). “You are like a penis/You sleep with a lot of people” is not even close to “You should be set on fire for not being straight” So calling someone a prick or even a whore is not even close.
to Darren: “The young generation almost seem disappointed that they’re not being oppressed” you DID say Ireland not the States/north america but still! And a lot of people are still trying to learn about themselves, as a result of all the oppression, which a LOT of people still have to go through! That’s great you did your bit but not everyone has the same life as you nor is in the same situation! “and have to invent ever more ridiculous identities” people used to think being gay was ridiculous too!
in conclusion,
Yes, musn’t be ridiculous but must be respectful and intelligent and sensible too! The hearts and brains are there for a reason! Use them!
“political correctness” I guess you haven’t noticed there is nothing correct about politics! Anything but, in fact! and “At the end of the day, we are all just trying to make this world a better place” perhaps in the context of sexuality wnd genders but in every other way, no. The planet is getting destroyed at an alarming rate with all the warring and hate and animal products and polluting and just brainlessness and heartlessness? More and more people are waking up and making a difference but let’s not claim all care or even most yet!
ps I agree with the article otherwise. Good one! Have a nice day!
LGB covers it. No need for “T” or any of the rest of the letters or symbols.
H covers it…Human.
Perhaps we should start over and stick to one letter:S (straight). Judging from this article it’s probably in the minority these days.
I think it’s like walking into a room and saying “I’m cool with you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, not you, you, you, you and you.”
Who is the “not you”? Straight/cis/hets.
It’s not inclusive, it’s exclusive, passive aggressively. So, in a round about way, those included are still defining themselves by what they are not. As the other to the norm. That isn’t what was intended, but unfortunately that seems to be what has come of it.
I think that the attempt at a larger cohesive collective is an attempt at building a force against the dominant straight/cis/het culture, and so maybe “non-straight/cis/het” would be absolutely appropriate, but the overtness of it is politically untenable. So…. IDK.
I’m cool with LGBT. Or, whatever everybody wants. Saul Goodman.
In other words, it should’ve stopped at Q.
Or drop the Q and move the + sign after the T.
…Actually, once upon a time it was how it was meant to be by design… Girls, boys, women, men. A broad range of malfunctions could be detected at and after birth, though sex/sexuality were a dead giveaway unless the child was hermaphrodite, which was confusing for everyone but put into letters it was M, F.
Back when everybody simply assumed that heterosexuality is what works best for reproduction so really anything else is a twisted perception learned by people through traumatic life experiences or just perverted grubs that choose to mess around outside of the obvious to act out and satisfy a sick mind… Same as a serial killer isn’t born a serial killer, it becomes their choice! We only needed one alphabet to communicate effectively, now you lot started your own alphabent but you don’t want all the other weird cunts abbreviation’s added onto it??? Sorry but our original alphabet is full so they’re all yours! Enjoy 👍🏻