cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/2089998

Archived version: https://archive.ph/X5D30
Archived version: https://web.archive.org/web/20230830081318/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66654134

  • AcidSmiley [she/her]
    ·
    1 year ago

    Honestly, including people is why i prefer just saying queer over using acronyms. It's completely open-ended, it doesn't create a hierachy based on who gets named first and who ends up with one of the slots behind the LGBT that may or may not be included by a given speaker, it's easy to use, it doesn't shoehorn people into rigid categories and makes it easy to fit in for people who are questioning or have complex identities - and it pisses off the exact type of bourgousified, reactionary, assimilationist, racist, mysogynist, transphobic, biphobic cis gays that the farthead you're replying to refers to when they bring up how supposedly "gay people shit talk" all of this.

    • Kuori [she/her]
      ·
      1 year ago

      same tbh, plus i find i trip over acronyms a lot and it gives Certain Assholes the feeling that they can use that as a vector for attack ("it's so complicated even they can't keep track!" etc)

      supposedly "gay people shit talk" all of this.

      worth mentioning scumfuck up there only added that bit after getting criticized for their bigotry. homophobes are all magically harvey milk's favorite nephew the instant someone calls them out.

      • AcidSmiley [she/her]
        ·
        1 year ago

        worth mentioning scumfuck up there only added that bit after getting criticized for their bigotry. homophobes are all magically harvey milk's favorite nephew the instant someone calls them out.

        Yeah that's common, i see that a lot both online and irl and they always mean somebody like that one gay dude in their QAnon chat group who dates muslim men exclusively while also wanting to genocide them.

      • AcidSmiley [she/her]
        ·
        1 year ago

        That said, i don't mind when ohter people go with the acronyms, and it often tells you a lot about the background of the person using it. Like, i see that it starts with 2S, i immediately know they're Canadian because that's the only place in the world doing that. Or when somebody still says GLBT like they did before AIDS, i know i'm reading a post from a cis gay boomer. And when i see something including LGBTT, i know they're a transmedicalist and possibly from Southwest Germany and think you're not valid if you don't get bottom surgery.

    • DADDYCHILL [none/use name]
      ·
      1 year ago

      disagree, queer is not all encompassing. if you dont identify as queer but you still want to identify with the community the acronym is still the best descriptor. as for the order, i do support updating it by putting trans first and pushing bisexuals down the list in favor of pansexuals.

      • Tastysnack
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        edit-2
        1 year ago

        deleted by creator

      • WittyProfileName2 [she/her]
        ·
        1 year ago

        pushing bisexuals down the list in favor of pansexuals.

        Bad take, considering bi erasure exists.

        • DADDYCHILL [none/use name]
          ·
          1 year ago

          im not trying to do a bi erasure, bi people are valid. im just saying as someone who was bi sexual who later became pan sexual after learning about the term i just think changing some of the letters around would be good ways to raise awareness about different genders and sexualities in the acronym. so many people know what lgbt is but they dont really know the plus part. the first four are really important to the broader conception of gender and sexual identity as a whole. look if we can change the flag i dont think the acronym is sacrosanct either, i do however think we need an acronym.

          i think lesbian, gay, and bisexual should be lower on the acronym. i think trans people should be first since they are receiving most of the targeting and attacks out of any group in the community right now, i think pansexuals, asexuals, and nonbinaries could really benefit from a representation bump. TPAN, rolls off the tongue. we can keep lgbt too. nobody got rid of the pride flag after the progress flag. both can exist at the same time. i just think its a representation issue.

      • AcidSmiley [she/her]
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        queer is not all encompassing

        It's literally a catchall term for anybody who's not het, cis, allo or endo.

        pushing bisexuals down the list in favor of pansexuals

        As a bisexual trans woman exclusively dating t4t, let's NOT start the "bi is actually transphobic, you should call yourself pan" nonsense debate. It always leads to awful bad faith discussions, pushes bi erasure and completely ignores any and all actually transphobic dating behavior, of which there is plenty, none of which is connected to calling yourself bisexual.

      • silent_water [she/her]
        ·
        1 year ago

        I don't follow - my understanding of the term is that it encompasses everyone who fits under the umbrella. if you're not under the umbrella, the acronym isn't going to fit either, no? can you give me an example of who you mean?

        • GarbageShoot [he/him]
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          I've seen/heard of people specifically disavowing the term "queer" for their personal identity, but only a couple times and I, like others here, much prefer "queer" as a catchall term for brevity in all cases where there isn't someone objecting to it being applied to them.

          • silent_water [she/her]
            ·
            1 year ago

            yeah, I'd be curious to learn why. like I'm all for a different umbrella term but it's hard to pick one without understanding the complaint.

            • Tastysnack
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              edit-2
              1 year ago

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              • silent_water [she/her]
                ·
                1 year ago

                yep totally fair. I mostly interact with younger trans people - a lot of the boomers are just straight up dead here because of how the government handled AIDS. so there isn't the same kind of memory. like 40 is unfortunately the oldest I've met. it's rage inducing to think about - I transitioned with literally zero wise elders around to provide guidance.

                • Tastysnack
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                  edit-2
                  1 year ago

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              • AcidSmiley [she/her]
                ·
                1 year ago

                I get that for older gay people in English-speaking countries and i appreciate that you shared this. My perspective on this is rather different, as i'm from Germany and completely out-of-date English slurs are obviously not something people here normally have a personal trauma from. On this side of the North Sea, the people who take objection to the term queer are mainly assimilationists who don't want to be lumped in with anybody who is too flamboyant, loud and gender-nonconforming for their straight friends and business partners, or they're outright terfs who love to make up stuff about how lesbianism is erased by the queer agenda (ofc most of the time these aren't even lesbians, and if you see them at a counterprotest to a Dyke* March, odds are they are paid to be there by one of the European fronts for the Heritage Foundation). So i'm not used to needing to pay attention to who i piss off with the term, because my experience is that it reliably pisses off people i want to piss off.

                • Tastysnack
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                  edit-2
                  1 year ago

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                  • AcidSmiley [she/her]
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    Likewise, i'm feeling kinda icky because my previous opinion towards the term kind of brushed over the trauma queer elders had to endure. Because it originally wasn't the international term it is now, it was something that gay people abroad probably knew about, but definitely not something your average bigot in a rural central-European village yelled at you when he thought your pants where too fancy to make him feel secure in his fragile masculinity. So i was under the impression that people still alive today just had no direct, hurtful experience with it like with other slurs.

                    • Tastysnack
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                      edit-2
                      1 year ago

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                • Historical_General@lemm.ee
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  assimilationists

                  I'm sure you'll find them in the anglosphere too. I've seen a few threads of twitter. Possibly just Germans though, since they tend to have good English.

              • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
                ·
                1 year ago

                Not even only boomer gays, I'm in my mid 20s and I don't identify with the term. If someone were to call me that I'd get flashbacks lol

            • Venus [she/her]
              ·
              1 year ago

              Because queer is a slur many of us have been called by bigots

      • ThereRisesARedStar [she/her, they/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Its a sociological descriptor not a personal one. You can be queer and not identify as queer, and you can identify as queer and not be queer.