turtles

Ahaha. The college's GLBTA recently put up fliers around public areas that read, for example, '86% of BSU students know the 'G' in GLBTA stands for 'gay'. Did you?' and they have one for every letter in the acronym.

Apparently, '12% of BSU students know the 'A' in GLBTA stands for 'allies'.

Hmm, I wonder what else people might think that A stands for...? No, no, wait, allies are definitely more important.


Segueing!!!!! into a related topic.

I, honestly, don't like the long/typical acronyms at all. TBH I feel that an acronym that actually includes all identities would be fairly long...and probably change frequently. And there's the fact that T, if it gets in there at all, is such an umbrella term that I feel it's weird to expound into all the varieties of queer when there's an umbrella term for that. Although I do understand people can be uncomfortable with the word queer since it is still used hatefully.

I also, honestly, hear the acronyms used more often by bigots than slurs. This is probably because I'm in a more 'liberal' area, so modern bigotry is more common here, meaning non-overt bigotry. Basically, if somebody uses the term 'LGBTQ people(s)' I can expect that whatever they say next will be, at best, very patronizing.

So, what WOULD be a good way to label such things? No, really, I'm asking, because I'm really not sure. I like QSA, but obviously if the focus is on queer people, not trans etc. people. There's also the problem that asexual people who are hetero- or aromantic may not ID as queer. I also kind of like QTI (queer/trans/intersex) but it suffers from the same problem as the last one, and probably others I'm not seeing. TBH terms I favor the most are ones that don't try to name everybody, like Rainbow Guild or Dragon Alliance (okay, I made the last one up, but it seems like a good way to inspire respect right? Stop harassing us or we'll tell our dragons to fucking EAT YOU). Discuss?