Most crucially, the outsized focus on the trans community in many ways actually hurts trans people the most.This site uses a short list of Labels, one of which is LGBTQ. That particular label is unlikely to ever change. I chose it for a reason and not without some thought.
The above linked article that the quote is from is mostly about politics. I mostly but do not entirely think of politics as being about the laws and policies we choose to make.
I am on record as stating that the most political thing I do is I am open about having been molested and raped as a child. I do this in honor of my mother who was violently sexually assaulted at the age of 16 when she answered the front door.
My mother told me from a fairly early age "The world makes rape victims feel ashamed. The shame should be on the rapist, not on the victim." and she explicitly talked to me about "the WORLD needs to CHANGE" in that regard.
I seem to be far more recoverd from the sexual abuse I endured as a child than seems typical. I attribute part of that to my mother teaching me the shame is on the rapist, not their victim and in part to a personal policy rooted in that of being OPEN about what I endured.
This policy goes back more than forty years to my teens. An unexpected side effect: It has helped to desexualize the rape and emphasize "I was violently assaulted."
Most rape victims keep it a secret and are very picky whom they tell. It ends up being a mark of intimacy and trust if they divulge it and the emphasis ends up being "This is a SEXUAL detail about ME."
This site is named in honor of a MtF trans youth I gifted the name Genevieve while acting as a virtual surrogate mother to help her escape her real mother who was extremely abusive. So the T will stay in the LGBTQ part of the Label on this site.
I am NOT gay. I usually describe myself as "Not straight" or "Very hetero passing." I thought long and hard about how to describe myself.
I am disinclined to call myself queer but that's probably what MOST people would call me. So the Q is staying.
I am OPEN about being NOT straight in part for the sake of Genevieve and in part for the sake of other people who have been close to me, such as my Asexual son who would fit the "queer" label but not the Gay label.
Given that I haven't been with a gal in decades and don't really expect to hook up with any other women, it's really sort of a nuisance for me to be open about being not straight. Gay women often get all excited and hope I will get with them and that tends to not go good places.
I agree that current trends are a problem for the trans crowd. I've touched before on what I think of as The Pronoun Problem, where I think it's actually kind of a mistake for the trans community to advocate for things like people displaying their preferred pronouns upfront on social media.
What bits are between your legs is a private matter. The trans community faces a lot of challenges in trying to navigate their issue because the act of transitioning makes a private detail a matter of public record and it's all kinds of difficult to do that for a long list of reasons.
I understand why some people think the LGB and the TQ parts of that alphabet soup "go together" -- anything non-conforming having to do with sexuality or gender tends to get a lot of the same garbage from people.
I can also readily see why some people feel they should "get divorced" as the above linked article states. Wanting gender reassignment surgery doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the gay community per se.
This is NOT a political site. I mostly try to stay away from politics and have said previously if you are in a country where being gay is still illegal, you have bigger challenges than I can really help with.
If you live in a country where it's illegal to be gay, I'm very sorry. That's really outside the scope of what I can help with. You may want to consider moving to a different country or becoming politically active.I took two quarters of Greek in college. My professional interest is in community development work.
Some famous Greek individual said that "Man is an animal of the polis." This was their word for the Greek city-state.
Polis did not just mean the legally zoned piece of land with a particular city name and its architecture. It meant the people who lived there, the way tribe can be a label for a nation or political group separate from where it lives physically.
The phrase has been translated variously as "Man is a political animal" or "Man is a social creature." Neither is incorrect and neither is completely accurate.
You could say more accurately "People are shaped by their environment and the culture and social fabric within which they reside." but, I mean, it's a bit wordy. Not so catchy.
I find social things interesting. "Politics" is a place where social stuff and laws, official policy and other regulatory mechanisms collide.
Though I certainly acknowledge that laws, policies, etc tend to grow out of social norms, which is why I say being open about what happened to me is the most political thing I do: It is intended to change minds, in line with my mother's stated agenda.
If it needs to go to court or get a law passed or changed, something has almost certainly already gone very wrong. I write in hopes of helping people navigate their social challenges without it getting to that point in hopes of making this a LESS political issue.
If you are involved in politics and wishing to "divorce" the T or something, you do what makes sense to you and please don't feel my use of LGBTQ suggests a "personal policy" on how these things "should" be grouped for political purposes. I see absolutely no reason whatsoever we can't have SOME organizations that are LGB (no T) and some that are LGBT (no Q) and some that are LGBTQ.
I'm well aware there are other phrases NOT included in those acronyms, such as Two Spirit which is a Native American term that Natives object to outsiders using. I am disinclined to add more letters and am happy to suggest the "Q" part is an umbrella term intended to be inclusive of anyone who feels they "belong" in this category and feels they aren't covered by the first four letters.
Some of the social best practices I try to discuss work equally well regardless of which rainbow flavor is yours. I try to talk about how people can handle social challenges. Challenging existing laws or policies, proposing new laws or official policies, etc. is outside the scope of what I am trying to do here.
I recently set up the sub Fashion Is Smashin. I chose a pink triangle as the icon.
This is a nod to my German heritage. My mother is a German immigrant.
The pink triangle was used in concentration camps to identify gay people and was later embraced by gays as a gay pride symbol to represent them.
From what I have read, the LGBTQ community in Germany pre-World War II was thriving to a degree that was not normal for that community in most countries and, in fact, was not normal for most people of any stripe at that time as World War II was preceded by The Great Depression.
I have also heard that drag queen performances and similar art were able to do things in Berlin before the wall came down and the two Germanies reunited that they couldn't do anywhere else. There was an openness there that was unusual.
I chose a pink triangle in hopes of reminding myself that what I want is to foster what the gay community had in pre-war Germany and hopefully avoid the collision course where jealousy of their success and other factors put them on The Bad List when things went so terribly sideways.
This site is part of that general interest of mine. I am interested in fostering practical solutions, not promoting legal or ideological battles.
If you are someone WANTING to do "an LGB, no T" thing (or whatever), don't point to me as some reason you can't. I'm not your enemy. My reasons for choosing those specific letters as a label have nothing to do with political anything.