LGBTQ

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'''LGBTQ+''' (or, less commonly, '''GLBT''') is an acronym for "[[Lesbian]], [[Gay]], [[Bisexual]], and [[Transgender]]". 

It is used to describe all the issues related to the included communities – plus a few others thrown in for good measure, as the initialism LGBTQ+ is intended to emphasize a diversity of sexuality and gender identity-based cultures and is sometimes used to refer to anyone who is non-[[heterosexual]] and/or non-[[cisgender]] instead of exclusively to people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other sexual orientations.<ref name="Gay Pride Nee">{{cite web | last=Swain | first=Keith W. | title=Gay Pride Needs New Direction | publisher=''Denver Post'' | date=21 June 2007 |url = http://www.denverpost.com/ci_6198394?source=rss |accessdate= 2008-07-05 }}</ref><ref name="The Handbook of Lesb">{{cite book |last=Shankle |first=Michael D. |title=The Handbook of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Public Health: A Practitioner's Guide To Service |publisher=Haworth Press |year=2006|isbn= 1-56023-496-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pUUyLSKD5voC}}</ref>

==Expanding the acronym...==
Before there was an acronym, a variety of terms were used. In the United States, an early one was "homophile", which more or less became "homosexual", then "gay". ''Gay'' was often an umbrella term,<ref name="ExlAH"/>{{rp|79–81}}<ref name="TBTS"/>{{rp|595}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Downs |first=Jim |url=https://archive.org/details/standbymeforgott0000down_l1k1/page/6/mode/2up?q=%22transgender%22&view=theater |title=Stand by Me: The Forgotten History of Gay Liberation |date=2016-03-01 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0-465-09855-2 |language=en |quote=I wanted to tell the stories that surprised me of how gay people built churches, founded newspapers, established bookstores, and rethought the meaning of gay identity. I wanted to show how the 1970s was more than a night at the bathhouse. … There were debates in newspapers about the meaning of gay sex and its impact on gay culture, but the outbreak of [[HIV/AIDS]] extinguished those conversations. An image of gay men as hypersexual began to be promoted in order to rationalize the spread of the virus, and in the process gay men were turned into the leading protagonists in the 1970s. Lesbians, lesbian-feminists, transgender people, and queer people all participated in the making of gay liberation, but their contributions have often been overlooked due to the ways that promiscuity defined that decade. My focus here is to correct the hypersexual caricature of gay men in the 1970s…}}</ref>{{rp|6}} though following the Stonewall riots, became less inclusive in some milieus (particularly towards bisexual and trans people who were considered less easily compatible with [[respectability politics]]). One cited example being the {{w|Gay Activists Alliance||,}} which split from the more radical {{w|Gay Liberation Front}}{{efn|Which had a combined trans and crossdressers' caucus.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Baker |first=Roger |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_xsTCgAAQBAJ |title=Drag: A History of Female Impersonation in the Performing Arts |date=1995 |publisher=NYU Press |isbn=978-0-8147-1254-2}}</ref>{{rp|239–240}}}} — partly because the latter raised bail money for the [[Black Panthers]].{{efn|The leader of the Panthers, [[Huey Newton]], supported gay liberation as well as women's liberation.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/aletter-from-huey-1 A Letter from Huey to the Revolutionary Brothers and Sisters about the Women's Liberation and Gay Liberation Movements, 1970]. Via the Internet Archive.</ref><ref>BlackPast, B. (2018, April 17). (1970) Huey P. Newton, [https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/speeches-african-american-history/huey-p-newton-women-s-liberation-and-gay-liberation-movements/ "The Women’s Liberation and Gay Liberation Movements"]. ''BlackPast''.</ref> At the {{w|Revolutionary People's Constitutional Convention||,}} a gay liberation group presented a platform that included the right to a physiological sex change.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Power |first=Lisa |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ep0bAQAAMAAJ&q=physiological |title=No Bath But Plenty of Bubbles: An Oral History of the Gay Liberation Front, 1970-1973 |date=1995 |publisher=Cassell |isbn=978-0-304-33195-6}}</ref>{{rp|6}}}}<ref name="TBTS">{{Cite book |last=Erickson-Schroth |first=Laura |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Trans_Bodies_Trans_Selves/gN5eEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA595&printsec=frontcover |title=Trans Bodies, Trans Selves: A Resource by and for Transgender Communities |date=2022 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-009272-6 |pages=595 |language=en}}</ref>{{rp|595}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Alexander |first=Jonathan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2SOe4igsrbgC |title=Bisexuality and Transgenderism: InterSEXions of the Others |last2=Yescavage |first2=Karen |date=2003 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-1-56023-287-2 |language=en}}</ref>{{rp|51}} Lesbian women wanted to distinguish themselves in the community, so it became "gay and lesbian" or "lesbian and gay". Some in the community argued this was divisive, but it took root.<ref name="ExlAH">{{Cite book |last=Hoffman |first=Amy |url=https://archive.org/details/armyofexloversmy0000hoff/page/80/mode/2up?q=%22lesbian+and+gay%22&view=theater |title=An Army of Ex-Lovers: My Life at the Gay Community News|date=2007 |publisher=University of Massachusetts Press |isbn=978-1-55849-620-0 |language=en}}</ref>{{rp|79–81}}

The original acronym, now distinguishing and so explicitly (re)integrating bisexuals,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Adam |first=Barry D. |url=https://archive.org/details/riseofgaylesbian0000adam/page/146/mode/2up?q=%22bisexual%22 |title=The Rise of a Gay and Lesbian Movement |date=1995 |publisher=Twayne Publishers |isbn=978-0-8057-3863-6 |language=en}}</ref> was '''LGB''', or '''GLB'''. Following some confusion over issues of [[sexuality]] and [[gender]] (no, they're ''not'' the same) and the fact that the term "gay community" did not accurately represent those to whom it referred,<ref name="Gay Pride Nee"/> ''transgender'' was added to the acronym during the '80s, forming the '''LGBT''' that is in common use today.<ref>Acronyms, initialisms & abbreviations dictionary, Volume 1, Part 1. Gale Research Co., 1985, ISBN 978-0-8103-0683-7.
[https://books.google.com/books?id=JDtUAAAAMAAJ Factsheet five, Issues 32–36, Mike Gunderloy, 1989]</ref>

"[[Intersex]]" being a medical term used to describe those born with intermediate or atypical combinations of physical sexual characteristics fails to be properly described by "transgender" and as a result of feeling left out, "intersex" has found its way into vaguely common use, forming '''LGBTI''', while others insist that they are not a part of the LGBT community and would rather that they not be included as part of the term.<ref name="Challenging Lesbian Nor">{{cite book | last=Aragon | first=Angela Pattatuchi | title=Challenging Lesbian Norms: Intersex, Transgender, Intersectional, and Queer Perspectives | publisher=Haworth Press
 | year=2006|isbn= 1-56023-645-0 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=usruybRjfMUC |accessdate= 2008-07-05 }}</ref><ref name="Fenway Guide">{{cite book | last= Makadon | first=Harvey J. | first2=Kenneth H. |last2=Mayer |first3=Jennifer |last3=Potter |first4=Hilary |last4=Goldhammer | title=The Fenway Guide to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Health | publisher=ACP Press
 | year=2008|isbn=1-930513-95-X |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=VsRwtwb-He8C}}</ref>

Alternatively, the acronym is sometimes expanded to '''LGBTQ''', with the '''Q''' standing for either "queer" or "questioning", depending on who you ask.

'''QUILTBAG''' stands for "Queer, Unidentified, Intersex, Lesbian, Transgender, Bisexual, Asexual, and Gay".

For those hardcore individuals interested in a challenge, try to work out what '''LGBTTI2QQAP''' stands for.

To summarize:<ref group=note>Most from {{wpl|LGBT}} or cited elsewhere in this article</ref>
* A = asexual 
* B = bisexual
* C = curious
* G = gay, genderqueer
* H = HIV-positive, HIV-affected, hijra
* I = intersex
* L = lesbian
* O = other
* P = polyamorous, pansexual
* Q = queer, questioning
* SA = straight ally
* T = trans, transgender, transsexual, two-spirit
* TS = two-spirit
* U = unsure, unidentified
* 2 = two-spirit
* + = other

An occasionally used alternative initialism is '''GSM''' or '''GSRM''' ('''G'''ender, '''S'''exual, and/or '''R'''omantic '''M'''inorities), which is short yet includes every possible marginalized sexual orientation and gender identity, and the latter includes various different romantic orientations as well. Some activists object to the term, noting the use of the term "sexual minority" in some quarters to attempt to include [[pedophilia]] as [[False equivalence|just another sexuality]] (despite being age-based rather than gender/sex-based),<ref>{{cite book|last1=Altair|first1=Octaevius|title=The Violators: No Human Rights for You (Canada)|date=2011|isbn=9781257378012|page=11|url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=eRrLAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA11|accessdate=12 March 2015|quote=The rights of youth must be protected as well as the rights of Atheists and Sexual minorities. As a [[Homophile]] who is also a {{wpl|Hebephilia|Hebephile}}. I engage is [''sic''] recreational sex exclusively with teenagers.}}</ref> as the term "sexual minority" was coined in the late 1960s under the influence of Lars Ullerstam's book "The Erotic Minorities: A Swedish View", which came strongly in favor of tolerance to [[paedophilia]] and "sex criminals".<ref name=GSM1>{{cite web|last1=Lattimer|first1=Julia|title=GSM acronym better than LGBT alphabet soup|url=http://www.collegiatetimes.com/opinion/gsm-acronym-better-than-lgbt-alphabet-soup/article_f7a325a4-5acd-11e4-bf0d-001a4bcf6878.html|work=Collegiate Times|accessdate=11 June 2015}}</ref> Despite this, the term "sexual minority" usually refers to those who are widely accepted as part of the LGBT acronym, in particular gay people.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Sullivan|first1=Michael K.|title=Sexual Minorities: Discrimination, Challenges, and Development in America|date=2003|publisher=Haworth Social Work Practice Press|isbn=9780789002358|edition=illustrated|url=https://openlibrary.org/books/OL8151801M/Sexual_Minorities|accessdate=12 March 2015|quote=SUMMARY. This chapter explores the cultural, religious, and sociological underpinnings of homophobia and intolerance toward homosexuals.}}</ref> Another alternative term is "{{w|sexual diversity||,"}} or "gender and sexual diversity".

Some people in the communities are giving up on the acronym and using the phrase "alphabet soup" instead.<ref name="pugetsoundoff.org">{{cite web|url=http://pugetsoundoff.org/blog/lgbtqqiaap-alphabet-soup-101|title=LGBTQQIAAP - "Alphabet Soup 101" - PugetSoundOff.org|publisher=|accessdate=6 October 2014}}</ref><ref name=Huffpost1>{{cite web|author1=Multiple|title=Lgbt Alphabet Soup|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/lgbt-alphabet-soup/|website=huffingtonpost.com|publisher=The Huffington Post|accessdate=20 December 2014|language=en}}</ref> Although the phrase "alphabet soup" has been used as a pejorative by right wingers and homophobes/transphobes. Others are using '''LGBT+''', with the plus sign representing all other sexual and gender minorities.

Another alternative to the alphabet soup is '''MOGAI''', standing for Marginalized Orientations, Genders, Alignments, and Identities.

==Good eating==

Incidentally, an [[Recipe:GLBT sandwich|LGBT sandwich]] is a lettuce, guacamole, bacon, and tomato [[Fun:Sandwich|sandwich]]. And a good friend.

==See also==
*[[Refuting anti-LGBT+ arguments]]
*[[Corporate Equality Index]]
*[[LGBT rights]]
*[[LGBTQ orientation glossary]]
*[[Transgender glossary]]

== External links ==
* [http://www.glbtqarchive.com/ Archives] of {{wpl|glbtq.com|GLBTQ.com,}} the GLBTQ encyclopedia.
* [http://directory.lgbtcenters.org/ Directory of U.S. and international LGBT Community Centers]
* [http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/index.aspx American Psychological Association's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Concerns Office]

==Notes==
<references group="note"/>

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

[[Category:Gender]]
[[Category:Homosexuality]]
[[Category:Social justice]]

Categories: Gender, Homosexuality, Social justice