LGBTQIA+ Community
LGBTQIA+ community – a social community that brings together lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, asexual, and other people on the basis of shared interests, problems, and goals. The acronym stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning, Intersex, and Asexual, while the plus sign indicates the inclusion of other identities and experiences not explicitly represented by individual letters in the acronym.
The LGBTQIA+ community consists of various communication groups, communities, subcultural currents, and LGBTQIA+ organizations. The formation of the LGBTQIA+ community laid the foundations for the movement for the rights of sexual and gender minorities.
The addition of the “+” sign to the acronym acknowledges that there are other people whose sexual orientations, gender identities, or sex characteristics fall outside cisgender and heterosexual norms, but who are not represented in the acronym by a separate letter, for example pansexual or demisexual people. In this sense, the acronym functions as a shortened umbrella designation for such groups and experiences.
The abbreviation LGBT first began to be used in the United States around 1988. Its main purpose was to emphasize the diversity of sexual and gender cultures through which people may define their identities. Later, the letter “Q” was added to the acronym, referring to queer or questioning. The letter “Q” is included with regard to people who find it difficult to define themselves or who categorically do not identify with any of the already named sexual or gender minorities.
Sometimes the acronym LGBTQIA+ is used, where “I” refers to intersex people. According to intersex activist Yuliia Pustovit, this inclusion is not entirely unproblematic, because all the other letters in the acronym refer to sexual orientations or gender identities, whereas intersex refers to innate variations in the formation of bodily sex characteristics, not to sexual orientation or gender identity (Pustovit, 2018).
At present, the acronym LGBTQIA+ continues to be updated.
Reference:
Pustovit, Yu. (2018, April 30). Pro interseks-liudei… [About intersex people…]. Gender v detaliakh [Gender in detail]. Retrieved from https://genderindetail.org.ua/community/comments/pro-intersex-lyudey.html [in Ukrainian].
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