The LGBTQ+ community is all about including everyone. Most see that as a good thing. A community for all with a label for all to boot. Jonathan Rauch begs to differ.
Rauch wrote in an editorial for The Atlantic that the community was in store for a new name, and soon; one overarching term that is non-exclusive, simple, and a change from the LGBTTQQIAAP, only a fraction of the letters in the acronym as of 2019. He nominates a single letter: Q.
I was immediately intrigued with the point this article made, and the action that is called for, as I never thought of the name as exclusive to those identifying as heterosexual and cisgendered. I also never thought of it as posing a problem. Yet the moment I considered his points, I began to sweeten up to the idea of it all. Though I’m not sure I understand the problem 100% here, I realized that it is impossible for me to speak unbiased on this matter, as my sexual orientation is not grouped in with a load of other genders and sexualities, all confined to a ‘plus.’ As a bisexual female, my “letter” is front and center, and I don’t feel less than, or more than for that matter, than any other individual on the spectrum who is grouped into a mathematical symbol. And while the point that having the plus be a stand-in for all orientations other that gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender, never occurred to me as a problem or a means of exclusion and favoritism, you could say, it is extremely evident to me when I look at it from this new perspective, that this method to end exclusion is essentially promoting it, and at the end of the day, ineffective.
The problem at hand is now the substitute, and that’s before addressing how the conversations are going to go in which those who have taken decades to switch from “Fa—ts” and ‘Queers’ to ‘Individuals part of the LGBTQ+ community,’ will have to realign to the newer, more widely accepted terms.
There are slim pickings, as there is yet to be a word in regards to the LGBTQ+ community that has not derived from bigotry and/or from an insult that the rainbow community has taken and turned into a positive mantra if you will. While ‘Gay’ means happy, and can be used as an umbrella term when speaking in regards to the LGBTQ+ community, it lacks the specifics many are in favor of, as well as the fact that it tends to leave out the gender queer community and those who are straight, yet identify as transgender, non-binary, or any other non-cisgendered sex.
The ‘Q’ from LGBTQ+ stands for ‘queer,’ which many have pushed as the answer to this community title problem, yet it is too much a derogatory word, not only in the days where gay was seen as a curse word, but even today in the 21st century, where as much as we’d like to think alternatively, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, and even the dubbed “queerphobia,” rages on. Even living in Los Angeles, one of the most liberal places you can get, surrounded by family members and friends who are almost all supportive in regards to my sexuality; I still flinch when I hear the word. It has become well accepted for those identifying somewhere on the spectrum to label themselves as queer; I do and I take pride in it; others use the synonym to a cigarette stub as a means to show their pride in the identity, yet outside the Gay-Straight Alliance, where only the queer occupants of the club get to renounce themselves and others this, those identifying at most as hetero-sexual cis-gendered individuals have no right to say this, even if they tote an uncanny amount of #Pride merchandise with them. For the cis-het population, it is not evident that when using this word you are in support of the community. The word still aligns itself with its definitions of ‘misfit, oddball, weirdo, mess up,’ and that means that no matter how innocently used, it will only be heavily pulled down with negative connotations and insulting baggage.
From this, I say we must put our minds together and come up with a new word, not ‘Q,’ not ‘queer,’ and not any perceptible as offensive word that has been used to label us in the past; no, I call for a word that sums each and every one of our guys, gals, and non-binary pals, no matter their sexual or gender orientation, no matter if they identify as more than an ally or not. I call for a society that can send humans to the Moon 238,900 miles away we can certainly come up with a non-biased all-inclusive word to describe me and you alike.
So how many more must be included in the disparaging long acronym before my sexuality, before my identity, before me as a non-straight individual is turned from what the part of me that is a proud bisexual woman is, a powerful part of me that I have come to love, accept, and fight for, is turned into one more letter in a record-breakingly large bowl of alphabet soup?
Maya Henry, 2024- World News/ Politics Writer
Photo Credit: The Atlantic
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