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Lgbtq
Who added Q to LGBT, why, and thought Q was pejorative?
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Short version: It originally meant "questioning", but got muscled out by people who were keen on the movement to "reclaim" the q-word who started out their cause in the 80s.
Long version: Okay, so you need to start at the beginning with this. Originally, when Gay Liberation Front was set up, "Gay" essentially meant "anybody not-heterosexual." Early GLF events were, however, overwhelmingly attended by men, because it was primarily men who were targeted by 'indecency' laws which either criminalised or discriminated against homosexuality. As such, 'Gay' quickly came to be associated with men, hence "gay man" has become the default understanding.
Feminists who were involved in GLF or parallel movements were dissatisfied with this and felt it was exclusive, and so began calling themselves Lesbians - then shortly afterwards for similar reasons you had Bisexuals. LGB. All non-heterosexual orientations, all of which were affected to some degree or another by the same kinds of discrimination and the same bad laws - especially S28 and such. Good and clear. All obviously the same issue.
For various historical reasons, however, people who were transgender had strong links with the LGB community, so eventually wanted recognition too. LGBT. T does not really have anything to do with the other three, because sexuality and gender are quite different things.
"Q" for a while was to include people unsure. But in the 1980s, an academic discipline called "Q-word studies" opened up in the USA and Canada, growing out of the emergent discipline of cultural studies. The idea of this discipline was to be as all-inclusive as possible in the study of all the above categories (even though T has very little to do with the rest), but some of the early founders wanted it to have some bite to it. So rather than opt for the word "Gay" as GLF had originally meant it, like a sensible person would, they decided to use a rather backwards slur - "q-word" - and "reclaim" the word. This is a remarkably stupid thing to do for several reasons, but the main one is that it puts people who use it on a deliberate and wilful collision course with well-meaning people who are not up to date on the "lingo" and are (quite appropriately) confused.
It is, put blunty, an isolationist act which comes from a small group of professional "radicals" who were desperate to preserve the gay rights movement as a "counter-culture" rather than the mainstream cause it is now. It also has the added poor taste of muscling out "questioning" people (and with them, the idea that it is alright to be questioning) and insisting on behalf of all gay people (like myself) who don't particularly like being called "Q-word" that this is an appropriate thing to call us.
Needless to say, I'm not a fan. But it has happened and is gaining increasing currency for some stupid reason. I wish it would go away because I think "q-word" is a vile word but it won't. Ho hum.
Notice I have to use "q-word" rather than the word which you were saying in your head when you were reading this, because AB's swear filter considers it unusable. Just like most sensible people do.
Long version: Okay, so you need to start at the beginning with this. Originally, when Gay Liberation Front was set up, "Gay" essentially meant "anybody not-heterosexual." Early GLF events were, however, overwhelmingly attended by men, because it was primarily men who were targeted by 'indecency' laws which either criminalised or discriminated against homosexuality. As such, 'Gay' quickly came to be associated with men, hence "gay man" has become the default understanding.
Feminists who were involved in GLF or parallel movements were dissatisfied with this and felt it was exclusive, and so began calling themselves Lesbians - then shortly afterwards for similar reasons you had Bisexuals. LGB. All non-heterosexual orientations, all of which were affected to some degree or another by the same kinds of discrimination and the same bad laws - especially S28 and such. Good and clear. All obviously the same issue.
For various historical reasons, however, people who were transgender had strong links with the LGB community, so eventually wanted recognition too. LGBT. T does not really have anything to do with the other three, because sexuality and gender are quite different things.
"Q" for a while was to include people unsure. But in the 1980s, an academic discipline called "Q-word studies" opened up in the USA and Canada, growing out of the emergent discipline of cultural studies. The idea of this discipline was to be as all-inclusive as possible in the study of all the above categories (even though T has very little to do with the rest), but some of the early founders wanted it to have some bite to it. So rather than opt for the word "Gay" as GLF had originally meant it, like a sensible person would, they decided to use a rather backwards slur - "q-word" - and "reclaim" the word. This is a remarkably stupid thing to do for several reasons, but the main one is that it puts people who use it on a deliberate and wilful collision course with well-meaning people who are not up to date on the "lingo" and are (quite appropriately) confused.
It is, put blunty, an isolationist act which comes from a small group of professional "radicals" who were desperate to preserve the gay rights movement as a "counter-culture" rather than the mainstream cause it is now. It also has the added poor taste of muscling out "questioning" people (and with them, the idea that it is alright to be questioning) and insisting on behalf of all gay people (like myself) who don't particularly like being called "Q-word" that this is an appropriate thing to call us.
Needless to say, I'm not a fan. But it has happened and is gaining increasing currency for some stupid reason. I wish it would go away because I think "q-word" is a vile word but it won't. Ho hum.
Notice I have to use "q-word" rather than the word which you were saying in your head when you were reading this, because AB's swear filter considers it unusable. Just like most sensible people do.
Just by people with big enough media presence who bought into this idea constantly using it again and again and again. There's also a website called tumblr which is a massive haven for people who buy into all this radical "q-word theory" stuff, and over time that's built an audience who will respond to it more favourably than before. I think it's just a progressive drip-drip effect.
That and I think prejudice is much lower than it used to be, and so you very rarely hear people refer to gay people pejoratively as "q-words" in polite company any more (you will hear this, though, if you walk in the street holding hands with someone of the same sex for too long). So there's just less exposure to the slur and more exposure to the "reclaimed" mental gymnastics nonsense.
That and I think prejudice is much lower than it used to be, and so you very rarely hear people refer to gay people pejoratively as "q-words" in polite company any more (you will hear this, though, if you walk in the street holding hands with someone of the same sex for too long). So there's just less exposure to the slur and more exposure to the "reclaimed" mental gymnastics nonsense.
Some people can go overboard with the labels. As long as you ask politely,, or follow the other person's lead as to how open they are, how they identify etc, then there shouldn't be a problem. And if there still is a problem after that then they're just not a nice person in the first place.
Not quite sure I'm keen on "in-betweeners" though. In between what? :P
Not quite sure I'm keen on "in-betweeners" though. In between what? :P
Well, kromo covered the history of it pretty well. I might add that the "T" itself stands for TS, TG, TV... it is all too easy to get confused a little. This key thing though is that getting confused shouldn't be a problem -- as I say, just follow the person's lead, and if they care that you don't immediately recognise what "label" they prefer then they're just not a nice person (or are too busy on tumblr).
"Perhaps it wasn't the best suggestion, jim. But it would be so liberating to find a term for anyone who was not heterosexual that covered all the possible variants and so avoided all the initials and classifications. Any ideas?"
Nah. Stick to LGBT, and thank your lucky stars that no-one's mentioned LGBTIQ yet.
Nah. Stick to LGBT, and thank your lucky stars that no-one's mentioned LGBTIQ yet.
