Since the very start, it’s been a target of mockery. The acronym LGBTQIA+ comes out (!) of a simple need – what do we call ourselves? The default “gay” and “queer” work as umbrella terms, until they don’t.
If you’re coming out later in life, you might be experiencing this quandary for yourself. What do I call myself?
The acronym LGBTQIA+ is a term used to describe a diverse range of sexual orientations and gender identities. It’s long, yeah – because we keep working to include everyone who doesn’t fall into cis/hetero norms. And who knew – there’s a lot of us!
The comical length of the acronym led conservatives to coin the term “Alphabet Mafia,” to mock queer people while also making us sound dangerous.
Guess how that worked out? We’ve been reclaiming slurs since they invented slurs, right, Friends of Dorothy?
But if you’re new to LGBTQ life, here’s a handy guide to the acronym.
What Does LGBTQ Stand For?
Well, we stand for truth, justice, and the American way, just like Superman (who has never been queer, but in recent comics his son Jonathan is!).
Of course, what we mean by TJ&TAW isn’t exactly what LGBTQ opponents mean by it.
The letters in LGBTQIA+ stand for:
L: Lesbian – A woman-identifying person (cis or trans) who is primarily attracted to women.
G: Gay – A man-identifying person (cis or trans) who is primarily attracted to men.
B: Bisexual – A person who is attracted to both men and women, or, more broadly, to people of more than one gender (as in pansexual, omnisexual, and demisexual).
T: Transgender – A person whose gender identity differs from their assigned sex at birth. Trans includes nonbinary, genderqueer, genderfluid, and all other non-cis identities.
Q: Queer – An umbrella term for sexual and gender identities that are not cisgender or heterosexual.
Q is sometimes used to mean “Questioning,” referring to individuals who are exploring their sexual orientation or gender identity. Occasionally, you will see two Qs – one for Queer, and one for Questioning.
I: Intersex – A person born with sex characteristics (such as chromosomes, gonads, or genitals) that do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies.
A: Asexual – A person who experiences little or no sexual attraction.
Some have tried to claim A for “allies” as a way of including non-queer supporters into the fold. This is, obviously, controversial. We have nothing but love for allies – many of us, especially those of us coming out later in life, considered ourselves allies before coming out.
But allies aren’t queer, and asexual people are. So in our book, A stands for Ace.
+: The plus sign represents the many other sexual orientations and gender identities that exist beyond the initialisms. Some examples include pansexual, genderqueer, agender, and non-binary.
They are the “And the rest” in the Gilligan’s Island theme song. (Yes, the Professor and Mary Ann are both queer. Fight me.)
How are Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Related?
One of the issues surrounding the acronym is that LGBTQIA+ risks combining sexual orientations and gender identities in a single monolith.
- Sexual Orientation: This refers to a person’s characteristic physical, romantic, and/or emotional attraction to others. It is distinct from gender identity.
- Gender Identity: This is an individual’s internal sense of being a woman, a man, or something else. It is not determined by sex assigned at birth.
So under sexual orientation, we have LGB and A. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and asexual are all understood as sexual orientations.
We also have transgender, queer, and intersex. Transgender is decidedly gender identity – how a person perceives their gender. But intersex is both a gender identity and a biological identity.
And queer is the umbrella that all the other letters fall under.
Acronyms Don’t Die, They Multiply (And So Do We)
So it’s obvious that there’s no perfect solution to what to call us! When we develop an acronym, every letter has to stand for multiple identities. If we try to include every identity, we end up with, well, basically the whole alphabet.
The acronym LGBTQIA+ is constantly evolving to reflect the diversity of sexual orientations and gender identities. New letters and terms may be added in the future as our understanding of these concepts continues to grow.
Over the years, anti-trans radical feminists have tried to remove T, arguing that transgender is not a sexual orientation. It is, however, a queer identity – we trans people fly in the face of heteronormativity. So we stan trans.
In some cultural contexts, other letters are added to express cultural-specific identities. For instance, TS, 2S, or just 2 may be added to include two-spirit Indigenous people.
Some have advocated for adding P to include polyamorous people, though some queer activists question whether polyamory is an identity or merely a relationship style (as heterosexual-identifying people also practice polyamory).
Look, don’t sweat it. One of the most beautiful things about queerness is that it gives us the freedom to throw out rules other people set for us. And the beautiful thing about the queer community is that we can have these discussions.
People are more free to come out and live their truth than ever before. The younger generations are bold, and they are creating names for identities that we middle-aged and elder queer folx never had access to.
So if the acronym gets so long it falls off end of the page, so be it. If it gets so long it could wrap around the world six times, all the better. We’re stronger for who we include.
But would it have killed them to come up with an acronym we can pronounce like a word?
