The Queer Letters

And I think that your examples are good ones. I do my best to support your community but agree that I am not a member of your community. The definition in this post came from a pansexual resource and is included to show the complexity of sexual orientation. Mogii is a good alternative that many use! Marginalized Orientations, Gender Identities, and Intersex. Personally I think the acronym is more trouble than anything. Someone always has a complaint. No one can complain then. And its more pronounceable.

You make an interesting point. Sadly, as the original post, the comment thread, and your observations make clear, there is no option that pleases everybody.

What’s in an acronym? Parsing the LGBTQQIP2SAA community | Social Justice For All

I am pansexual myself, hell even fluid works for me and I am fine with being called gay too — whatever, as long as people know I am not a damn heterosexual. Queer is easy and you almost never have to explain to people what that means — i. Hell queer even sounds better than anything else too.

I mean gay was good but then all the lesbians got pissed and said what about us! Call us Queer and be done with it! And we already have so many cool slogans and we already paid the printers for all the signage and flyers and flags! Thanks for your comments, Mark. I appreciate your candor when discussing your own identity. That included everyone who was in the community at that time. Did we get new members? Did the community expand? No disrespect to anyone, but are we pretty much including anyone that does not identify as a Straight Man or a Straight Woman?

This seems a little hostile from the get-go. Like a community of LGBT allies. We welcome them in our community, but are they really technically part of it? Communities can co-exist, but why expand ours to the point where there is nothing that connects us within said community other than the fact that we are not Heterosexual?

Regarding the Q for Queer or Questioning. I questioned my sexuality for a few years, and then I identified as gay. Others will identify as Bi, or Trans or Asexual, or, apparently, Pansexual.

Questioning is a temporary state. Thank for your several thoughtful comments on this thread, Peter. This includes those whose sexuality is fluid as well as those who are grappling with their identity and orientation. They are not queer. A is for asexual, somebody who does not feel sexual attraction this is a spectrum , and for aromantic, somebody who does not feel romantic attraction.

One can be heteroromantic but asexual, or homosexual and aromantic, or any combination thereof. Thank you for your thoughts on this. Unfortunately, identifying something in the negative i. The acronym, which stands for marginalized orientations, gender alignments, and intersex, is one that does encompass the entire community as well.

Thanks for your thoughts, Chris. This just came up at my workplace, where we publish a list of meetings for the general public, some of which are for LGBTQ people. This has caused some confusion for people not familiar with this designation. It seems with every attempt to include people in a designation, you end up excluding someone. The fundamental problem seems to be with our discomfort with the idea of difference. I think of every individual as completely different from every other, entirely unique.

What never ceases to amaze be is when people who otherwise might never associate, come together when something causes them to recognize their mutuality, around something like illness, or addiction, or hardship of any kind. They can only ever function as a kind of shorthand. Recognizing supporters from outside is wonderful; including them in a descriptor seems a bit off the mark.

I can even add it to our menu as a sandwich! How creative can i get?? Impressive if I may say so! On that note, why not Hetero and Other. No no no no no no no no no no A does not and never has stood for allies. A stands for asexual and aromantic. Thanks for your comment. As I pointed out in the article, one of the challenges with this acronym is how many different opinions — frequently passionately held — inform it.

I have been ousted as a leader of my own chapter!

L, G, B, T, Q, Q, I, A… what do all the letters mean?

How can we argue over a name to call ourselves? Although having some speed bumps was not the worst thing in the world. This is just crazy. And who made you Queen? I should know who a Queen is! And you are not my Queen! Screw all this alphabet stuff for our name. Maybe we should just get a symbol like Prince. Who can argue with a symbol? By a huge margin. As the original post and wide variety of responses demonstrate, finding a snappy, satisfying label for a diverse group is tricky at best.

First, defining things in the negative is inherently marginalizing see my reply to MrsJDahmer above. I think a big part of the problem here is confusing sexual attraction with gender identity. Asexual is not sexually attracted to anyone, but still have either a cisgender or transgender identity. Why asexual is even considered here is beyond me. For me asexual is like calling atheism a religion. I had learned that Gay referred to people of either gender that were attracted to people of the same sex. But the inclusion of Lesbian in the acronym implies that Gay refers to just men.

Have I had it wrong all these years? I do fully support inclusion, and would like to be at least aware of the conversation. I encounter the LGBT acronym more frequently these past few years, most recently while reviewing the non-discrimination policy at my work. Thanks for your comment and question, Ron. I hope that helps. Wow, July 11, is the first comment to this article and prior to my comment March 27, So here I am April 6, just reading the article for the first time.

So Dr Google I did search. So I thought I better get clear on this. In fact I think it has become a bit silly to be honest. I really loved the historical input about terms used for other minorities. We have a difficult enough time as it is with the hetros accepting us and we cannot even agree on a name. Thanks for pointing out another term. The whole point is to represent a complex group of marginalized people. Comments like yours underscore how vital it is for those of us outside the dominant discourse to find our voices in solidarity.

I understand that each group wants to be understood as who they are, yet I want to know people, not their preferences as their identity. What is your gentle comment on how to do this respectfully? Since I offer no disrespect or hostility I ask that you please respond in kind. Thank you for your comment, Peggy, and your clear efforts to understand these issues from the outside. Sexual orientation and gender identity ARE intrinsic to who a person is.

Understanding are respecting who we are enriches your experience. The nuances matter, since they are part of our humanity. I as a two woman woman am offended that you think my two spirits are a male and female. When in fact we are both female.

Furthermore how care you!!! I am sorry…for you. First, you miss the point of the article, which is that gender and sexual orientation are so complex and varied that no label s can please everyone. This could be an opportunity for you to teach or share. Straight Phil, my goodness! Clearly you are not an ally. Inclusiveness certainly is the heart of this cause, but the cause must not become just repetitive scrupulousness. The important matter is the actual folks out there in the world, not an internal mind exercise.

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I had always heard that the I was for identifying. For those who are the gender opposite of whatever their genitalia is defined as. Odd being not statistically the norm. Technically if the population shifts to be pansexualesque overall the queers would be the cis-hets. My sister is gay and proposing to her girlfriend with 2 children soon, and I am extremely excited for them.

There is a strange bit that I think some people might be overlooking however. What about the fact that sexuality is still very taboo? What about everyone who is still targeted for their interests? Sure, someone could come out as being gay and barely anyone looks sideways, but god forbid someone come out as a fetishist of almost any sort.

That alone should signify that many are looked at sideways for being weird. Furries, CNC, swingers, etc. Every major mature site that people use in private would be targeted to be shut down. Not because it is illegal, but because of the fact most people are not comfortable with the subject matter. I am fairly certain I would not be looked at favorably by most in the cis-het group. All in all, Qetc seems to include anyone who might be looked at wrongly for being true to themselves. By labeling at all, you miss entirely the point of inclusion. Labels are inherent dividers, used to organize groups of people into small, easily recognized and referred-to boxes for the purpose of general discussion.

Having this argument is like having every state in the U. The effort needs to be in defining the group by a name representing the entire collective of every little snowflake involved. Acronyms do NOT work for human beings. The need for explicit representation of every individual, multi-faceted, morphological combination of sexual, gender, spiritual, and even species orientation is SELFISH and unfounded, and will never be supported by language because language is get this limited. If someone sees a stranger who appears to be male, displaying all the inherent physical traits of a human male, and assumes him to be a him, that is logical.

There is an indication that this is indeed a human female. It appears to be a damned pigeon. The same applies here. I think that there are few or no people who fit the binary model, just people who are either perceived as such or who are ok without a more expansive label.

It has and always will be LGBT. Is it possible to add an N in there?? Why not just use all the letters of the alphabet twice?. John, your comment read rather inflammatory here. I hope you fine a way to move forward in your journey of awareness. I believe his point is for those who feel the need for some crazy acronym to represent them, you are by definition putting a target on yourself for others to shoot at.

At my age, I just lay it on the line. Your comment is ignorant and petty. Perhaps your suggestion is meant to be tongue-in-cheek? Okay, here we go: That covers it all. Sadly, that term links everything back to sexual orientation again, which is only a subset of the community. We got an I-DT problem here. Homosexuality is a mental disorder.

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Shut your stupid mouths and focus on a real problem like abortion. Good god this is getting confusing! How about we add a K for kaleidoscopic? I personally think that there should be two communities. Who argues about about what water is? We just accept it as a part of our lives. Why should we argue about what is the range of our sexuality?

The NSD Community covers almost all people — and excludes only those who use sex and sexuality as a means of oppression, a tool to control, or to victimize. Hopefully, those things are properly criminalized — And.

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Asexual is an orientation in and of itself not a lack thereof, but an actual orientation , and I am a heteroromantic asexual. You know this is making all gay people look like PC idiots, right? There is also another post here that discusses a similar idea. I figured I would share it with you guys because, like I said, […]. Over the last decade or so, individuals who do not feel the standard acronym represents their […].

A person who is attracted to people of the same gender. A person who identifies as two genders, either simultaneously or at different times. A person who has a shifting or changing gender identity, or who may identify and present in different ways at different times. A person whose gender identity differs from the societal norms of their assigned biological sex. Trans, transgender, trans-man, trans-woman: Our culture, in large part, assumes that people are heterosexual and cis-gender. Terms and definitions that explain different kinds of sexualities and identities are a crucial part of understanding oneself.

When someone comes out as transgender, it can be uncomfortable for people to know whether to use female pronouns she, her, hers or male ones he, him, his. For example, if a biologically male friend comes out as transgender, she probably wants to use female pronouns. This is not always the case; some people prefer gender-neutral pronouns zhe, thon, etc. English is not the only language expanding to include multiple gender identities. The best way of knowing which pronouns are appropriate to use when someone comes out to you as trans is to ask them. It may be uncomfortable at first, but an open and honest conversation is better than accidentally offending them.

An ally is a person who identifies as heterosexual and cis-gender but supports queer people. Education is the key to understanding anything.

LGBTQIA: A Beginner’s Guide to the Great Alphabet Soup Of Queer Identity

It is important to be familiar with these terms in order to use them properly. Also, having open and honest conversations with queer people is a great way to become more comfortable with the proper language to use. Another important way to be a good ally is to learn which terms and wordings are offensive and derogatory. It is not appropriate to use that word when referring to someone is transgender. However, it can still be derogatory when used in the wrong context. The absolute most important way to be a good ally is to treat queer people as people.

People, regardless of their sexual or gender identity, just want to be treated with respect. I think I might be gay or bi or trans or queer. What do I do? What do all these letters mean?