Most LGBT people would not even call themselves LGBT people. That in and of itself is an activist thing.
It was a coalition for specific common goals even when it was just Gay & Lesbian, two groups that are almost as different as different gets. When those goals were achieved, activists started slapping on more letters to try and keep the coalition going, forgetting that the goals of a coalition have to in fact be common. It's been more important to the activists to maintain a coalition at all than to represent the people purportedly encompassed by it.
I beg people to stop using the Acronym. I don't blame them (unless they're consciously doing it on purpose to blur distinctions and downplay ideological diversity, which some folks definitely do.) But I still wish everybody would stop. There is no such thing as an LGBT person.
It's kind of like when someone says they're "BIPOC." A response is "Could you be more specific?" Not only does BIPOC include hundreds of different racial and ethnic groups-- and even more cultures, backgrounds and experiences--, but it is also an activist term that most blacks and other racial minorities don't use.
Most LGBT people would not even call themselves LGBT people. That in and of itself is an activist thing.
It was a coalition for specific common goals even when it was just Gay & Lesbian, two groups that are almost as different as different gets. When those goals were achieved, activists started slapping on more letters to try and keep the coalition going, forgetting that the goals of a coalition have to in fact be common. It's been more important to the activists to maintain a coalition at all than to represent the people purportedly encompassed by it.
I beg people to stop using the Acronym. I don't blame them (unless they're consciously doing it on purpose to blur distinctions and downplay ideological diversity, which some folks definitely do.) But I still wish everybody would stop. There is no such thing as an LGBT person.
It's kind of like when someone says they're "BIPOC." A response is "Could you be more specific?" Not only does BIPOC include hundreds of different racial and ethnic groups-- and even more cultures, backgrounds and experiences--, but it is also an activist term that most blacks and other racial minorities don't use.