First it was “gay,” then “LGBT,” and now amongst some, “LBGTT2SQQA.” The confusion and awkwardness caused by the growing number of capital letters used to refer to the various groups within the overall non-heterosexual community breaks down into 2 aspects:
The groups involved do indeed have the right to ask others to refer to them by a term that is not offensive and emphasizes their uniqueness. The only problem here is that the number of groups keeps getting larger until it has become awkward and confusing. Besides having a certain “political correctness gone wild” feel to the question, it is confusing in that lots of us within and without the communities involved keep wondering what some of the capital letters even refer to. For example I thought the A meant “asking,” but now I have been told it means “allies.” I question why people not hostile to the rest of us sexual orientationally marginalized people even need to be included in the group with their own letter. But this raises the real problem in the orientation alphabet :
There is a basic conflict in the whole question. Just the grouping together of the various capital letters is an attempt to do two things at once—give a uniqueness to each group that speaks to that group's individuality, but at the same time using the letters together to speak to all of us being in the same boat-- in the same struggle for human rights and freedom from oppression. Wouldn't it make more sense to use a single word when referring to all sexual orientations not exclusively straight, and when referring to each group's individuality use the word appropriate to that sub-group—gay, lesbian, intersex, etc? With this approach, all that is necessary is to keep in mind when you are talking about a particular marginalized group and when you are referring to the larger community as a whole. No need to worry about inclusiveness.
I suggest we use Q, Queer, to replace the alphabet soup when referring to all non-straight people. I confess I DO wince when I hear straight people use the word, but I can get over that. The word “queer” has been redeemed by many non-straight people in recent years, and deliberately using it to replace the 10-letter alternative would serve to redeem it even more. Getting straights to stop using the word doesn't seem to be working, perhaps by redefining “queer” hearing it won't feel so much like a knife in the back.
