What is the plus in LGBTQ+?
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2davidc8 (
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June 26th, 2022
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13 Answers
Yes, it’s basically a way of saying “et cetera.” There are a lot of ways to be queer, but the acronym can only be so long. Eventually, it just becomes unwieldy—you run out of breath to speak or space to write. It also acknowledges that the community is ever expanding as people discover new ways of being.
Some people use LGBTQIA rather than adding a + sign.
I for Intersex.
A for Asexual.
It’s the deluxe subscription to LGBTQ.
According to HuffPo, the entire thing is LGBTQQIP2SAA.
@seawulf575 And that was six years ago! A “full” version would be even more cumbersome today, which is why the plus is used so often.
@SavoirFaire You are probably right. But my question is still as it has been for years…why do you even need all of it? Aren’t people people? If you are gay and I am not, so what? If you make a pass at me I can politely tell you I’m not interested. I know…I’m naive, but really, isn’t it the right attitude to have?
@seawulf575 could you link to the article that unpacks the full term? Because I did my research and there aren’t any sites that completely agree on the full term. I got so many different answers that my head hurt, and most of the sites are opinion pieces. And the site that does list your term has the definition for each term which all sound like they come from a joke.
And also one of the suggestion from google is “LGBTQQIP2SAA meme”
Well, there’s no Council of Queers that chooses an official term, so while there are some commonly used ones, there are various other attempts at including more sexual orientations and gender identities that don’t necessarily cover all possibilities nor do they cover the same set. I don’t consider any of these long terms particularly helpful and find they do little more than give reasons for people to mock the LGBT community and not take us seriously. Brevity is your friend. The preferred derogatory term on the right for the LGBT community is “alphabet people”, a direct result of these pointless attempts to be maximally “inclusive”.
It’s there because once everyone is out of the closet they may find another closet.
@seawulf575 Of course people are people, and of course it shouldn’t matter whether or not someone is gay (outside of the context of a relationship, at least). But that doesn’t mean we don’t need words for the different things that exist. I don’t care what size battery my son’s dinosaur toy uses, but I can’t just go to the store and say “one battery, please!” I’m going to need some words to describe what kind of battery I want.
In any case, I wasn’t trying to be antagonistic. I was just pointing out that the already overly long acronym that you found in HuffPo has gotten even longer (in some circles) since that article was published.
@SavoirFaire I didn’t take what you said as antagonistic. I was agreeing that you were probably right. My comment was just explaining my view on things. I find the whole thing goofy as can be. What if we started creating something equally goofy for straight guys and hetero gals? It would sound as idiotic to me since I don’t let my sexual appetites put me into a box with a label. And adding labels to expand the number of people you can contain means you are losing your cohesion. At least that is how I see it.
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