As a queer person, extending the acronym past what is necessary feels like pandering in the best light, and purposely trying to bait ridicule in the worst. The whole point of LGBT was to include anyone on the spectrum that was gay or trans, and the Q was supposed to include anyone who considers themselves queer, even if they don’t meed those parameters. I can understand wanting to include I because intersex people are often left out of the conversation, and I even understand A because there is a lot of debate even within the LGBTQ community itself as to whether asexuals are considered queer or not. But when you start incorporating numbers, symbols, or extending past 5 letters within the acronym, you are defeating the purpose of having an acronym, creating confusion, baiting ridicule, and even making people not explicitly represented in the acronym feel excluded.
And there is already a single, all encompassing, inclusive, one syllable word that describes the community and all who occupy it: “Queer.” It’s easier to say, remember, and hell, even type if you are typing LGBTQ past 5 letters. But because of it being appropriated and used as a slur, there are many even within the community who are even afraid to utter it, let alone identify with it. Which is a god damned shame there is nothing inherently wrong the word, cause even in its original meaning, it meant someone who was outside the norm or otherworldly, and in literature has been used to describe characters like Gandalf, and characters in Shakespeare.
It describes me without having to explain or justify how or why. It describes how I feel as a person, how others see me, how I interact and relate to others. Its an adjective that can be verbed and adverbed. It’s sharp and provocative, yet also warm and natural, like a forest green. People who have adopted and embraced the word for themselves feel the love within the word, and can extend it to others. And even for those outside the community, those who are brave enough to use it when talking in our defense come off as more decisive and confrontational, than the person who thinks adding another letter or number to the acronym will make them seem more legitimate.
It’s time we stop fearing our word. It’s time we recognize the difference between queer as an insult, and queer as a description of who we are, and we need to extend that to people who are willing to talk about us and our struggles or come to our defense. The word is only as evil as we are willing to reject it, and I will be dead in the ground before I let our word be the domain of queerphobes and bigots.
edit:
It’s late and I’m going to bed. Apparently some people think I’m a self hating queer for thinking the acronym should be dropped for an all inclusive term, and so be it. It’s late and I want to get some sleep. And a lot of the people making this argument I know haven’t read past the first paragraph, much less to here. Anything clarification they could want can be found here and in my other posts here. Otherwise, if they are not going to put in the effort to read, I’m not going to put in the effort to respond.edit 2: I wanted to make a separate inclusion because I have had a chance to sleep and cool off, and I wanted to address some of the more combative posts in my replies: I get it. We as a community suffer attacks constantly, even from within the community, so I understand why so many here are on guard and skeptical of my intentions. And I’ll admit, my post probably could be better written. I’m not exactly the best at articulating my thoughts. But the point of my post is not to exclude anyone from the community, but rather embrace a word that includes everyone. I would like to hear counterpoints to my argument, because maybe what I need is a different perspective on the issue. I would love to hear from people who prefer the acronym, and why they feel it maybe more inclusive. I am a flawed human being with many faults. I grew up in a conservative background, and my life up to this point has been trying to unlearn a lot of that. But I did not write this with the intention of excluding or singling out anyone. Forgive me I have done so.
i am really glad you took the time to put all of that into words. i, a queer person, agree completely.
I wish everyone was this rational
I mean, I don’t identify as queer and plenty of my friends don’t. One of my exes did and great for him but this just seems like the wrong argument. There likely just needs to be a technical, non-inflammatory term.
I’m glad you like it though.
The most all-encompassing term I’ve seen is sexual minority. Basically non-cis or non-straight
There’s some argument over adopting the term GSM (Gender and Sexual Minorities) as an inoffensive general term.
I like it, even tho usually I include a “R” there for romantic minorities(eg people who might not be a sexual minority but are a romantic one) when discussing this with other people, but I guess it could be argued that they still fit into “sexual”.
R or not, I like that it includes everyone without any identity being shoved into a letter or a “+” along with lots of others as if they’re an afterthought, not as important as the ones that get to show up as their own letters.
Can we apply this logic to the flag as well? I thought the rainbow of the pride flag was meant to represent diversity and cover all orientations…like how a rainbow spectrum of light literally covers all colours. Now specific groups are being added and people are finding ways to add another line to represent something. The flag is a mess.
I tend to think of the Progress flag as a product of the times, not as a replacement for the rainbow Pride flag. We added these additional signifiers specifically because those groups were under-represented or under particular attack, not because they aren’t included in the Pride rainbow.
I know others do but I don’t like the word queer. I say LGBT+.
My biggest qualm is a qualm I have with any acronym/abbreviation. If you’re going to introduce a letter that is unknown to many, then define your term. Otherwise, I’m going to assume it’s a typo, or I going to not recognize it.
All acronyms and abbreviations, or at least those that aren’t commonplace, should be defined somewhere adjacent to their use, or else you are excluding people.
Speech/text is only useful if you’re using it in a way that appropriately conveys a message to it’s intended audience.
I’ve come to realize that whatever it is that causes people to have alternative sexual preferences, I’ve got a little bit of it. However, I’m heterosexual, so I don’t really identify with the community. I could accept the queer label, though.
I’ve never really felt like I fit in anywhere.
Right there with you. World has always shat on dudes that don’t fit the traditional “masculine” role.
I don’t think my masculinity or or lackthereof is the problem that I have, but idk.
Can we make “gay” = happy again?
There was a petition to offer refugee status to LGBT Americans put before the House of Commons recently, I just got an email update about it because I signed it, and apparently they accept some refugees on this basis, but it doesn’t look like many. I say open the borders and bring me your gays, America. We’ll be nicer to them than you are.
My fiance and I have been looking into moving to Canada. He’s a librarian in a small town and things are not looking so great.
It’s really expensive unfortunately, but it’s a hell of a lot safer by and large.
We’re planning on lilypadding our way up through New England while we go through the citizenship process. These next few years are gonna suck major ass.
I was born to go dance and cycle all over montreal. Im in a northern state, rural, fuck all going on here.
To be honest a lot of Canada is very provincial in location and mental state. But at least we’re mostly nice.
TERF Island is welcoming the whole LGBT?
LGBTQ2 - the long-awaited sequel.
Wow… that #2 seems to have taken this article hostage.
Removed by mod
Ah yes, the sequel LGBTQ2: Electric Boogaloo
When Republicans call us stupid, this is the reason… Seriously, they are adding numbers now…
I’m done adding to it. Instead, I’m waiting for when sexually rigid and prude people are the minority instead, so that eventually “LGBTQ2…” becomes “regular people” and the prudes are the ones singled out as different.
We don’t want none of those *spits* cishets round these parts, now do we? You best turn right back round from where ya came, straight boy.
I mean, it’s for 2 spirit. Pretty rude comment to make on an article like this by the way.
OK, I can’t keep up, what’s the 2 mean? LOL
It’s more relevant for NA, it’s an indigenous thing iirc.
deleted by creator
Jesus. At this point can we just say LGBTO and have the O mean Others? It’s getting cringy af, and I’m saying that as a trans person.
You don’t even need the O, because that’s what the Q means.
I’d love if we could get to a place where the Q encompasses all of the identities. As it stands, it feels like Queer has taken on an identity of its own.
I’d love to get to a place where there is no LGBTQ+ community at all. That’s what actually winning looks like.
You get to be in the acronym. But you’re on your own for affordable food.
this is so stupid lol
It’s a Native American term that has been in use for thousands of years longer than whatever newbie civilization your ancestors came from.
LGBTQ2: Electric Bugaloo
Damn. New version already?
I can’t say I blame them.
I hope the new v2 update doesn’t come with a battlepass.
Where can I find the patch notes?
LGBTQ what now?
Two-Spirited. Apparently it’s a Native American term used to indicate a third gender.
honest question, what’s this “two-spirit” term? I can’t find a straight forward explanation on the web
Most places in the world recognize two genders and their respective social roles: men and women. Some places recognize a third gender and its respective social and/or ceremonial role. This is the case for (some) North American Indigenous people, and two-spirit is a catch-all term to refer to a third gender role that they recognize.
It’s hard to map onto the more standard two gender system that most of us are familiar with. When you think of men as the breadwinners and women as the child bearers, some cultures think of an additional distinct third gender with a designated social/ceremonial role.
But as you might have thought while reading that, men being the breadwinners and women being the child bearers is already a fairly outdated view of gender and social roles. Turns out social constructs are messier than they seem when you start to really analyze them and attempt to strictly define them.
TLDR: two-spirit is a catch-all term for a type of queer identity recognized by some North American Indigenous cultures.
So, at risk of being reductive: it’s like non-binary, but in the way some North American indigenous cultures see it
It’s reductive, but still close enough if you don’t know/interact with nonbinary or two-spirit people on a regular basis. At least to the extent of my understanding.
Two Spirit is a non binary identity with a specific cultural context within the history of indigenous peoples. In Canada, due to the increased focus on dealing with the reconciliation of Indigenous peoples the current Acronym is 2SLGBTQIA as it sort of symbolicly puts precedent on amplifying indigenous voices in the movement.
So nice to see public safety taken seriously. I don’t fit into the letters but also know full well that if a state is that intolerant then I won’t fare well either so I avoid said state. With the atmosphere some states are building , anyone can be caught up in their net of Others to be othered. Hell they can just make shit up as they are doing already, logic and reasoning are not a part of this whole scheme.
IA was a thing for a second, there seems to be more strands of this than Covid…
Damn all these comments discrediting the 2, just like all the NA migrants discredit Native Americans rights.
Talk about doubling down on bigotry towards a race of people. Sheeesh, some of y’all are hypocritical.
I think there’s not very much discrediting. Mostly just confusion over what the 2 means. I agree that the 2 is warranted when discussing queer Canadians.
