So perplexed
So I asked Doctor Google, and Snopes says the poster is real but the headline was intended as a joke, or at least as “somewhat” facetious.
This image was originally posted by the web site Louder with Crowder in August 2017 and was widely circulated on social media accompanied by derisive comments mocking the seemingly ever-expanding acronym used to refer to gender and sexual minorities. Some who saw the flyer were apparently so perplexed by the 15 letters at the top (which according to the flyer stands for Lesbian, Gay, Genderqueer, Bisexual, Demisexual, Transgender, Transsexual, Twospirit, Intersex, Queer, Questioning, Asexual, Allies, Pansexual and Polyamorous) that they questioned whether or not the image was real.
Ooh, imagine that – but it wasn’t “real” in the sense of truly referring to a genuine acronym without any irony.
This is indeed a flyer used to publicize an ETFO-run inclusiveness training session. However, the acronym LGGBDTTTIQQAAPP was used somewhat facetiously in order to publicize the training. A representative for the Durham chapter of the ETFO told us:
Yes, the poster is genuine. The intent of the title was to draw workshop participants (teachers) by acknowledging that keeping track of diverse LGBTQ identities can be overwhelming, especially as our students are continuously identifying new ones. In our union, we use LGBTQ as an umbrella term for all marginalized sexual and gender identities.
Which is turning out to be a bad idea because it mashes together too many disparate concepts, some of which contradict others.
Because those of us born women are not marginalized because of our sexual identity? Which is the sex we were born, not how we identify ourselves? This is getting way out of hand, even if the headline is a joke.
And since the tongue-in-check or whatever definition included “allies,” doesn’t this come perilously close to defining LGBTQ as “all good people”?
Ha. Yes it does.
Screechy, it certainly implies that anybody not identifying as an ally is the enemy. Because sex ain’t binary but warfare is.
AoS, that boils down to “if you’re not with us, you’re against us”, right? If it was good enough for Jesus and Dubya, it’s good enough for trans activism.
Seems like they forgot BDSM… Seriously though, polyamory? Wtf?
That is legitimately a lifestyle choice; it’s not something that you have to do. I’ve had a little flutter with it occasionally but it hardly belongs in the same realm as, y’know, gay people. It’s not an orientation.
My husband has been struggling to figure out the difference between pansexual and bisexual; I guess he is still stuck in the idea that there are two sexes, not 27, 30, or 1000. He can’t wrap his mind around pizza as a gender, but since he loves pizza, maybe he’s pansexual?
@iknklast:
I guess pansexual could cover being open to having sex with transpeople and those with unusual sexual configurations? With the former I’d think that gay and straight mostly covers it but a gay man being uninterested in transwomen is hardly surprising.
I always assumed that pansexual meant potential attraction to anything with or without a pulse, so not necessarily human nor animal.
Two spirit is a ….weird one. From Urban Dictionary:
Not a hint of mind-body dualism there, then. Although technically, I suppose, this goes one further for a mind-body-spirit triumverate. UD continues with
Which totes isn’t appropriation* because reasons SHUT UP.
Still, it is at least a genuine gender identity. Isn’t it? Wikipedia (emph. mine):
Oh, so it’s purely a traditional ceremonial role. But two spirit is now a genuine gender identity because SHUT. THE. FUCK. UP! That’s why.
Nearly as funny as the regular at PZ’s who cropped up at We Hunted The Mammoth a couple of years ago and claimed to have been diagnosed with SIWOTI syndrome**.
*Surely it should be mis-appropriation, since appropriation is often a legitimate act.
**An XKCD joke about argumentative people certain of their own superior intelligence (sound familiar?) who cannot leave the internet while there are others who need correcting having Someone Is Wrong On The Internet syndrome.
And polyamorous people aren’t oppressed in any way (unless they think not being able to marry multiple partners at the same time counts as “oppression.”)
I’ll bet the sort of polyamorists who would include themselves in the Infinite Acronym consider themselves “marginalized,” though. Because theirs is a minority lifestyle.
Hey, not many Americans are addicted to Cryptic Crosswords. Hey, look at me,! I’m special, I’m marginalized.
Acolyte of Sagan,
Best article I know on the appropriation of “Two Spirit, full of interesting information about what “Two Spirit” was–and what it wasn’t.
https://culturallyboundgender.wordpress.com/2013/03/09/toward-an-end-to-appropriation-of-indigenous-two-spirit-people-in-trans-politics-the-relationship-between-third-gender-roles-and-patriarchy/
@10,
Excuse me. A straight dude in a polyamorous relationship with multiple women is super queer and is therefore totally oppressed by boring old lesbians. Check yourself!
Lady M. thanks for that very informative link. Not only does it confirm that ‘two spirit’ is being used completely out of context by non-Native Americans, it also addresses in part something I was postulating a couple of days ago, namely whether transgender is as prevalent in societies without strict gender expectations. Seems not, if the examples quoted in that article are to be believed. Interesting.