We've all heard the term LGBT, right? Gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans*. Do you know how many groups consider that acronym redundant? The NYT ran an article recently on what it dubbed "Generation LGBTQIA". Here's just a sample of some of the labels you can apply to your sexual identity: gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, transgender, queer, homosexual, asexual, pansexual, omnisexual, trisexual, agender, bigender, third gender, gender queer, intersex, two-spirit, polyamorous... The list goes on.
Do we really need all these different definitions? Is it really necessary to split our community into smaller and smaller chunks of identity? At what point does an identity become so individual that it ceases to have any relevance to a wider group - and are we damaging our own equality movement by getting bogged down in a plethora of unnecessary labels?
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According to The Free Dictionary, "queer" originally may have meant 'oblique' or 'off-center'. To me (as a straight person), it works quite well, although "queer" still has lots of negative connotations - try looking it up in a thesaurus, for example. With that in mind, I think I would prefer the GSM option, but instead of using another abbreviation, why not coin a Latinate word, like genosexual, and refer to this community as genosexual minorities. I like these Latinate compounds because they are precise and clear, useful for academics and lay people, and not loaded with other possible meanings, like many Germanic words. I think heteronormative is a great example of this. Genosexual is a bit less clear, since the geno- prefix is usually used for genetics (genome), so a different compound may need to be coined.
ReplyDeleteSadly I don't think outside academic circles there's any collective imperative to come up with a generic term - while individuals recognise that one is needed, there's a distinct lack of co-operation sometimes: everyone wants their niche to be represented as something unique (hence the alphabet soup...).
DeleteWhatever term we do decide on will only ever be temporary, and no doubt there will always be people who find it objectionable :-)
It does get rather spread apart. I've had people tell me what they are and I don't have any clue what it means. Though I do kind of find it strange when someone shares with me their sexual identity when we just met. I usually just smile and nod. I don't really identify with any group, though I suppose asexual would be close enough, unless there's a title for someone that mostly enjoys literary porn :P
ReplyDeleteI think I might belong to your group!!
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