The positive power of plus
Sep. 21st, 2011 10:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cosmolinguistThe thing I like most about the Lib Dems' organization for lesbian, gay, bi and trans equality changing its name from "Delga" to "LGBT+ Liberal Democrats"... and there are a lot of things I like, not least that few people know what Delga means and even the guy who originally proposed the name has been wanting to get rid of it for years -- is that people are already using it...and it seems to be affecting how they think.
At least once in a training session yesterday, and I think in Stephen Glenn's summation of the conference accreditation motion (but that was Sunday morning, which I am sure was about a year ago, so I may be misremembering there), I heard people, after referring to "LGBT+ Lib Dems", then go on to talk about what we do for "LGBT people, and others."
It'd be great if this affects the way (some) people think about sexual and gender minorities, even people who might not understand what those "others" might be (I think not just cis straight people but a lot of cis gay men and lesbians use "LGBT" is as if it's a synonym for "gay"; I saw someone talk today on twitter about "gay marriage" for "LGBT people", for instance).
The "+" makes the acronym something different, so people stop and think a little more about what they're saying rather than just rattling it off as we are all wont to do.
The great thing is, I think this could work not just for the "others" (for instance asexual, intersex, genderqueer, people affected by the extreme pornography bill of a few years ago, and of course, still others) but all that's included in "LGBT" in the first place. As someone who's sick of it seeming used as a synonym for "gay" -- and especially irked that its opposite seems to be "straight," not "straight cis" -- I certainly hope this turns out to be the case.
At least once in a training session yesterday, and I think in Stephen Glenn's summation of the conference accreditation motion (but that was Sunday morning, which I am sure was about a year ago, so I may be misremembering there), I heard people, after referring to "LGBT+ Lib Dems", then go on to talk about what we do for "LGBT people, and others."
It'd be great if this affects the way (some) people think about sexual and gender minorities, even people who might not understand what those "others" might be (I think not just cis straight people but a lot of cis gay men and lesbians use "LGBT" is as if it's a synonym for "gay"; I saw someone talk today on twitter about "gay marriage" for "LGBT people", for instance).
The "+" makes the acronym something different, so people stop and think a little more about what they're saying rather than just rattling it off as we are all wont to do.
The great thing is, I think this could work not just for the "others" (for instance asexual, intersex, genderqueer, people affected by the extreme pornography bill of a few years ago, and of course, still others) but all that's included in "LGBT" in the first place. As someone who's sick of it seeming used as a synonym for "gay" -- and especially irked that its opposite seems to be "straight," not "straight cis" -- I certainly hope this turns out to be the case.