Proper Capitalization of Identity Labels

[Bri is Me]

Hey Guys!

 

Quick question here.  I'm in the process of writing an essay on asexuality, but I'm pretty picky about my own grammar, and I realized that I don't know anything about capitalization within the LGBT+ or even the ace community in general.

 

When writing about the ace community, is it more respectful to capitalize labels?  For example, these might include Asexual and Aromantic as well as labels like Grey Asexual, Panromantic, etc.  Or am I mistakenly capitalizing these terms?

My uncertainty stems from the Deaf community's use of the capital D in Deaf when discussing community, culture, and identity.  However, when speaking medically about deafness, a lowercase d is used.  I believe the Black community uses a capital B, as well, because it shows that they have a separate culture and history.

 

If there is no real basis on when to capitalize these terms, I would greatly appreciate anyone's opinions toward the subject.

 

Thanks!

Bri

[TheAP]

I've never heard that orientation terms should be capitalized.

[EggplantWitch]

Labels are adjectives rather than proper nouns, so when writing in the English language I would say you shouldn't (and the capitalisation in the examples you mentioned does confuse me) but provided you stick to whatever choice you make consistently throughout your essay I doubt you'd be penalised.

[ThaHoward]

I guess if you reffer to it as an organization or ideology as a whole. 

[LeChat]

Hi! Thanks for sharing this information about the deaf community (i.e., when they use uppercase letters and lowercase.) In the hearing community on YouTube and online, I've seen them give presentations using both interchangeably (especially an uppercase for titles shown on a screen, in group presentations that AVEN and others give when talking about asexuality), but I guess, since you said that the deaf community specifically uses uppercase letters when referring to specific communities, then it perhaps might be a good idea--in order to help other deaf people understand--to use an uppercase "A" when discussing the asexual community as a whole (e.g., "AVEN, an Asexual Community") and using a lowercase "a" when describing only one asexual's life experiences with asexuality (e.g., "So-and-so, an asexual, first discovered their sexual orientation at the age of 23.") 

 

Thanks for helping educate others in the deaf community about asexuality; not everyone knows sign language and is able to help with this.

[Moonchaser]

I wouldn't capitalize them.

[gisiebob]

sir, it is spelled xXAsExUaLXx.

[Apathetic Echidna]

Generally I don't capitalise. I sometimes capitalise just to draw attention to a particular term because it is a less common label and it would be weird in that context to bold or italic it. In the cases I do capitalise I do every label term, such as: Gray-Asexual Aromantic 

but then I was never that good at grammar 

[everywhere and nowhere]

It Depends.

I would say that English tends to overuse capitalization. But I look from the Polish perspective, where, for example, nouns for nationalities and ethnicities are capitalized (ex. Maria Curie była Polką - Marie Curie was Polish), but adjectives related to countries, nationalities and ethnicities aren't (ex. polskie cukierki - Polish candies). Names of religions, their adherents and religion-related adjectives are all written in lowercase.

And in some languages - for example Nordic and Eastern Slavic languages - unless I'm mistaken, all of the categories above are written in lowercase. I don't think that it's a lack of respect. It's just a linguistic convention.

And some languages, such as Hebrew, don't have a distintion between capital and lowercase letters at all...

So, from this point of view, in languages which don't use as much capitalization as English, there is no temptation to extend this rule to groups other than nationalities and ethnicities. However, in Polish too, when the Deaf are understood as a linguistic minority, capitalization is used indeed: Głusi.

 

Interesting piece of trivia: as many people know, in German all nouns are written with a capital letter - it's simply characteristic for German spelling. So, how to particularly distinguish some nouns? The 17th-century mystic poet Angelus Silesius wrote "God" with a double capital letter: GOtt.