What exactly is lgbtq?

[Green_Lantern]

As opposed to lgbt? Someone used the term lgbtq on a show I was watching last night and I was confused by the way it was used.

I know it means lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning but the person using it was presented as being offended by lgbt(leaving out the q).

Any thoughts?

[xchrom]

1. LgbtIq

I is for our intersexed kin and q is for queer and questing.

[mikelgb]

2. I thought the Q was for queer

because some self identify as such

[Cronus Protagonist]

3. They missed out the "I"

Intersexuals. I always thought the "Q" was for self-identifying "Queers", people who don't fit into the other labels.

[meegbear]

4. I'm still trying to figure out when GLBT became LGBT

[xchrom]

5. Because the latter sounds more like a sandwich! Nt

[GodlessBiker]

6. I've been in a few of those kind of sandwiches, I'll tell ya that!

[MineralMan]

7. Depends on who's writing it down, really.

I see both here on DU. GLBT and LBGT. Looking at the profile of the writer generally explains the choice.

[FreeState]

10. I personally use both - but I think the LGBT became more popular in the last few years for a couple

reasons. Mostly - and I may get flamed for this - but women are the backbone of our movement. Women are the ones that are there in both leadership and dedication. I think there are more elected lesbians than gay men (thats certainly the truth in So CA). Im sure others have experienced the opposite too - but that has been my experience since coming out 15 years ago.

[Toasterlad]

8. Some People Are a Bit Obsessive About Inclusiveness

GLBT has always been more than enough of a mouthful for me. As long as we respect our intersexed allies and continue to fight for their rights as much as our own, I don't find it necessary to slap an I on to GLBT. As for the Q...well, no one's ever been able satisfactorily define it. If you're not gay, or bisexual, exactly what are you? What is "queer" supposed to mean? And "questioning" is neither a sexual orientation nor a gender identity. Whenever I see a Q at the end of GLBT, it always makes me roll my eyes.

[GodlessBiker]

9. Yes. I've always been in favor of excluding people who are over-inclusive.

[Toasterlad]

12. Touche!

[Smashcut]

11. I always thought Q was for "questioning"

I guess it could also stand for "queer" (as many are saying here) which can be an alternative to identifying as gay...

[iwearshoesinky]

13. It's easier if we accept that there's three spectrums.

There's your improved scales of attraction started by Kinsey much much improved which demonstrate that the vast majority of people are somewhere in between exclusive opposite attraction and exclusive same attraction. Folks can also be outside of this if they have little or no attraction to anyone or have other priorities in life.

Second spectrum is gender which is of course a societal construction. There's a range between encompassing "masculine" and "feminine" traits at least how they are understood in the present. These expectations for gender do change dependent on time and geography. In Western society though, you have these poles and then a range of people in between based on self identification or how they are placed based on society's norms. In this you have people who are transgendered who are transitioning between genders or you also have gender queer folks who reject the label of gender and step outside of this spectrum similar to how asexual people are outside of the attraction spectrum.

Lastly, even biological sex is a spectrum. You have male XY and female XX as well as a range of chromosomal variations which we know as Intersex such as XXY, XXXY, etc. Also, there is a large range of ambiguity in live births that aren't even based on chromosomes but other factors in vitro.

I think that having an expansive alphabet is necessary because people like to be able to compartmentalize and have solid definitions. However, the truth is that there is a wide range of variation that requires more effort and energy to define to the lay person on the street. It's easier to say, I'm like you but I like my gender or sex than I like men but red headed women are also the bees knees so on a scale of 0 (being exclusive heterosexual) and 6 (exclusive same-sex attraction) I'm a 1.5. Of course for the vast majority of the population in the middle there can be variation based on time, experience vs. fantasy, or ease of identification when explaining sexuality to other people such as saying I'm gay when really you're a 5 on a sexuality scale.

Can of worms, it scares people.

[Meldread]

14. I remember an older debate about GLBT vs LGBT.

Basically, during that time GLBT was more commonly used and the argument centered over the fact that some lesbians were angered that the G came before the L. Since that time I've always written it as LGBT, in part to avoid being offensive / causing an argument, and in part because I didn't (and still don't) give a damn if the G or the L comes first. :P

Frankly, I find it silly to keep adding letters. Pretty soon, we might as well start with A and end with Z.

I'm all for inclusiveness, but at some point the acronym becomes difficult to use and remember. I'm at the point where I'm ready to stop using it all together and just use "Queer" as a universal term. Queer would signify anyone who is different, odd, and that is either not accepted by the mainstream or identifies with such individuals. That makes it a universal word that can be adopted by the movement to extend not only to LGBT people, but any other person that might identify with us and our cause be they gay, straight, or just a little bit strange - so long as they accept other people who are not accepted - then welcome!