I Hate the Gay Alphabet

As I was searching news stories to report on today, I came across the Politically Correct name for gay community and it is GLBTIQSAF. What the FUCK? Are they serious? This is our name? This is our Politically Correct community name? Come on wouldn’t you feel a little silly writing all that out? Because I know I do. Here’s what I suggest we do about it…

First off we need to talk about what all of this gay alphabet means:

G = Gay
L = Lesbian
B = Bi-Sexual
T = Transgender
I = Inter-Sex
Q = Queer and Questioning
F = Friends and Family
S = Straight Supporter
A = Alliance or Alley

And here is the most confusing part of this name… People freely switch the letters around or drop them completely. Depending of course on their own personal issues and identifiers.

For example:

GLBT or LGBT = Some one who identifies more with Gay or Lesbian and not so keen on the other groups that got left out. Or just not up on all the other “letters” issues.

GLBTI or LGBTI= Same thing as above but knows more about the “I” and is trying to include everyone.

GLBTQI or LGBTQI = Is someone who wants to represent those that are struggling with coming out. Typically people who aren’t out or had a very hard time coming out.

But really, this all boils down to people trying to be somewhat Politically Correct, or at least as much as they can stomach.

Now I know that the terms Gay Community or Gay and Lesbian Community can be a little divisive. I can see the logic there. It’s not just Gays and Lesbians fighting in this struggle for equality. Bisexuals, Transgender and Inter Sex need to be represented in the group. They are facing the same or similar issues of intolerance and injustice. But Friends/Family, Questioning, Supporters and Allies? Really?

Please don’t get me wrong. I love all my straight friends who support our movement. But why do you need to be included in our name. I know that you guys are there standing with us, but you guys are not us. Think about it for a second. You guys are supporters of the community, not part of it. We are not included in your guys politically Correct name as Friends/Family, Supporters and Allies. So please don’t get mad when I recommend we drop the FSA from our name.

Now on to my biggest pet peeve, the Questioning. I am sorry but you either are or you aren’t. Do you know that we are the ONLY group that includes questioning as a class of “members”. Besides, most people who are questioning their sexuality tend to designate themselves as bisexual. At least until they know for sure or feel comfortable being one way or the other. So say bye-bye to the Q from our name.

Now to get rid of them all, mwahaha! Like I said before I get the divisive nature of the terms Gay Community and Gay and Lesbian Community. But what’s wrong with Queer? The term Queer Community can include everyone with out any special place holders or rules of order. Plus, Queer is such a powerful word. It even sounds less…well pansy-ish.

Would you mess with a Queer? Of course not, they’ll cut ya. But a GLBTIer… that just sounds lame. So, I’m casting my vote for Queer.

MJ