Good to see an explanation. I don't care much, as my sexuality is strictly Heterosexual. But the flip side is, it is good to know
that there are people different than me, and this helps me. I printed a copy and put it in my wallet. As for myself,
I don't care what people do as long as it is no threat to me. A person that identifies as LGBTQ+ is no threat to me.
Are there LGBTQ+'rs on this site?
Q: As a heterosexual Male, am I a threat to you?
What does LGBTQ+ mean?
Below, we go into
what each letter of LGBTQ+ means, but we'll give you a quick rundown. LGBTQ+ is an acronym that is a way to reference the entire community in an inclusive way without having to name every identity that exists within the queer population.
LGBTQ+ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (and more). Now, let's get into the specifics.
L: Lesbian
As National Geographic reported, the term ālesbianismā or ā
lesbianā is the oldest label out of the LGBTQ+ acronym. This is because of the Greek poet, Sappho, and her āsapphicā poetry. She was from the island of Lesbos, so thatās where ālesbianismā gets its name; women-loving women were just falling into the sapphic tradition, which originated on the Isle of Lesbos. Get it?
The word ālesbianā has obviously evolved in its usage. Still, the modern use of the term started in the 1890s and continued to be the go-to label for queer women who dated other women (even if they were bisexual since that label wasn't used in its modern way yet. More on that later). Now, ālesbianā is the label women or non-men use if they are attracted to other women and non-men. Lesbianism does not exclude transgender women or non-binary individuals, even if a louder minority claims it does.
G: Gay
The term āhomosexualā came right before the modern use of the term ālesbian.ā Austro-Hungarian journalist Karoly Maria Kertbeny coined the term in 1869 along with āheterosexual.ā āGayā (as in sexuality, not as in āhappyā) came around later, and for decades, it was used as a slur. Unfortunately, thatās still the case in some instances todayā
Hilary Duff would like to squash that practice, as we thank her for her workābut by the 1960s, queer people started to reclaim the word.
Of course, gay did and still does refer to men who are attracted to other men. By the 1970s, gay was used as a sort of
umbrella term for all members of the community, especially during the Gay Rights movement. And because of this, āgayā was also used to describe the community.
B: Bisexual
Kertbeny, who coined āhomosexualā and āheterosexualā also introduced the label ābisexualā into the greater conversation. However, in 1859, the term ā
bisexualityā was thought to refer to a person with both male and female physical characteristics (which is what we would now call intersexāmore on that later).
Once we got to modern-day usages of ālesbianā and āgay,ā a lot of people just used those terms while also acknowledging that they liked more than one gender. But bisexuality, as we know it today, took off during the Gay Rights movement, with bi groups popping up by the 1980s. And as the
1990 Bisexual Manifestoāwhich appeared in bisexual lit and art magazine
Anything That Movesāstated, bisexuality wasnāt binary and was fluid. So since its origin, bisexuality has never been about ātwoā genders and hasnāt been trans-exclusionary (which is, unfortunately, a common misconception).
T: Transgender
In the beginning, there have been a lot of terms and names for transgender individuals that are outdated or offensive today. The label ātransgenderā wasnāt really used until 1965, according to National Geographic. Activists like Virginia Prince championed the use of ātransgenderā since sexuality and gender are two separate things. Transgender people's gender identity is different than the one they were assigned at birth. They can take medicine or have surgeries that help them transition, physically, to their correct gender. But transgender people don't have to physically transition either. Some also use the term non-binary, but not all non-binary people identify as trans.
By the ā90s, transgender people within the gay community wanted to be seen and respected (especially since the acronym LGB was being used, excluding other queer people). So, by the late ā90s, the
T was added to LGBT and "transgender" was more widely accepted by the 2000s. However, there is still a lot of misunderstanding and hate toward transgender people today.
Q: Queer
Maybe youāve been reading this piece and have been thinking about the use of the term āqueer.ā Itās a slur, right? Well, yes, if spoken by non-queer people in a derogatory manner (donāt let
Hilary Duff catch you saying this one either!).
But the word has been reclaimed by the community and, as a label, is growing in popularity. Some people in the LGBTQ+ community use it in conjunction with their other labels and identities, and others use only the label āqueer.ā The "Q" was added to the acronym as the community grew to be more inclusive of all, and since queer is such a big umbrella term, it covers a lot of identities.
Q: Questioning
Even though our common gay acronym is LGBTQ+, with just one āQ,ā thereās another label that the letter stands for as well. A lot of people recognize that the Q also stands for "questioning," which stands for people who arenāt sure where they fit in within the gay community or donāt have a name for how they identify yet.
Pride Monthāand respect within the queer communityāisnāt contingent on how you identify, who youāve slept with (or not slept with) or if youāre out. Itās all about personal discovery and defining who you are for yourself, so people who aren't sure what label they want to use are, of course, still a part of the community.
+: Plus
To make things read easier and flow betterāalong with the fact that it is the common, most well-known acronym for the gay populationāwe at
Parade just use LGBTQ+. This is the same with a lot of other organizations and sites. And that ā+ā is really important because it leaves the term open-ended to include as many identities as exist in the community. This includes people who are non-binary, gender non-conforming, genderqueer and so much more.
For example, there is one acronym,
LGBTQQIP2SAA, which includes intersex, pansexual, two-spirit, asexual and ally. That isnāt an acronym that most people know nor can decipher easily (and includes allies which is highly contested and usually not accepted as part of the LGBTQ+ acronym and definitely not a part of the gay community). A more common acronym is LGBTQIA+, which includes two identities weāll talk about next. Again, the plus in LGBTQ+ has a big job and makes it one of the most inclusive acronyms for the queer population.
I: Intersex
Intersex isnāt as common a label as the others, but itās still a label that people have used for a while. As the
Gay Center defines it, intersex describes someone who has one or more āinnate sex characteristics,ā whether that be with reproductive organs, genitals or chromosomes. This would make them āoutside of traditional conceptsā of the physical gender binary that we know today. This is different than transgender because intersex people are assigned a gender at birth despite not fitting quite into that criteria, physically, and doctors and parents make this decision even if itās not accurate to what the child actually is.
The āIā was
added in the 2010s, and is still used in the longer version of LGBTQ+, which is LGBTQIA+.
A: Asexual
Asexual people are those that experience no sexual attraction to any gender. This can be shortened to āaceā and is different (but similar) to aromantic, which is a label for people who donāt have emotional or romantic attractions but might not experience asexuality. The term started popping up more in the 2010s, and as
GLAAD noted, asexual was added to the larger LGBTQIA+ acronym by 2015.
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