"politically correct" question

[maiming]

hello all,

would someone PLEASE tell me what all the letters in LGBTQ mean ?

 

i'm looking for a roommate and don't want to exclude anyone by stating "straight/gay"...

 

thank you !

[Bitvargur]

Hi there,

LGBTQ = Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning/Queer.

Might be easier to state that you are looking for a LGBTQ+ friendly roommate, the list of induviduals you might accidentally exclude is quite long 
 

[Ldlelee]

^Yeah, what they said. I always try to spell it out to LGBTQIA (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Questioning/Queer, Intersex, and Asexual), but I know sometimes it can be a pain in the butt, so LGBT usually suffices in most cases.

[Traveler40]

1 hour ago, Leedle-Lee said:

Intersex, and Asexual),

Thanks for clearing up the acronym that I never use so don’t pay much attention to beyond the LGBT part - what is “intersex”?
 

I will Google it, but figure the definitions here at AVEN may be more colorful if exceptionally specific. 😁

 

EDIT: So, hermaphrodite? That’s what we grew up knowing. Remember, I’m the woman married to an asexual man who didn’t have a word for it or knowledge it was a thing across 15 years of our relationship. Many of these differences are neither seen nor understood, especially among those a bit older perhaps.

[_Neon_]

I agree with everyone above. I tend to gravitate towards Gender, Romantic, and Sexual Minorities, or GRSM, because it's more inclusive and you can avoid debates over the specifics of each letter.

 

Of course, a lot of people will have no clue what you are talking about unless you write out/say the words first.

[iff]

1 hour ago, Traveler40 said:

 

EDIT: So, hermaphrodite? That’s what we grew up knowing. 

That word is on our list of words not to use

 

[Ldlelee]

2 hours ago, Traveler40 said:

Thanks for clearing up the acronym that I never use so don’t pay much attention to beyond the LGBT part - what is “intersex”?
 

I will Google it, but figure the definitions here at AVEN may be more colorful if exceptionally specific. 😁

 

EDIT: So, hermaphrodite? That’s what we grew up knowing. Remember, I’m the woman married to an asexual man who didn’t have a word for it or knowledge it was a thing across 15 years of our relationship. Many of these differences are neither seen nor understood, especially among those a bit older perhaps.

Like @festiff said, please refrain from using that word--it's prohibited from being used on this forum.

 

"Intersex" generally means to have sex characteristics that are outside of the binary norm, such as having a combination of both. I'm not an expert on the topic, but I think Planned Parenthood sums it up pretty well: https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/gender-identity/sex-gender-identity/whats-intersex.

[Traveler40]

2 hours ago, festiff said:

That word is on our list of words not to use

 

Yikes! Sorry, I didn’t know. I’ll check out that list for future reference. Thanks 

 

EDIT: I just checked out the list. That word is up there with some powerfully vulgar and unacceptable terms. My apologies. I’ll leave it at that lest I out myself as even more uneducated. 🙄🤦🏻‍♀️

[ryn2]

Yeah, that was a common term years ago but had been considered an unacceptable slur (at least in the US) for some time now.

 

There are many things which fall under the intersex umbrella, including some which are only detectable at the cellular level.

[glyders]

Interesting. I only knew it as a specific biological term, not as an insult, though of course pretty much anything can be used as an insult if someone wants to do so - I'm always correcting people who say things like 'that's so gay'.

[glyders]

I was playing I spy with my 12yo daughter recently and called "something beginning with LG". She immediately replied "BTQA+". Yay!

It was "long grass", btw.

[Mayhair]

On 12/8/2020 at 8:24 PM, Leedle-Lee said:

^Yeah, what they said. I always try to spell it out to LGBTQIA (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Questioning/Queer, Intersex, and Asexual), but I know sometimes it can be a pain in the butt, so LGBT usually suffices in most cases.

I myself mostly write it as LGBT+.