LGBT: Those Hidden Between the Letters

With LGBT History Month just starting now and running through October, and Bisexual Awareness Week just ending in the second to last in September, the question comes up of why there needs to be a separate week focused on bisexuals so close to an entire month devoted in part to bisexual history. However, even though bisexuals are included in the official name for LGBT History Month, bisexuals still have their stories and experiences–past and present–invalidated to the point where they are treated as if they couldn’t possibly exist. This erasure and lack of inclusion is a problem not just for bisexuals, but for many groups in the non-heterosexual, non-cisgendered, and/or non-sexual identifying community. The LGBT acronym itself–used for the month officially by GLSEN–leaves many groups out even while attempting to be inclusive of gender identities and all scales of sexual orientation. Gender, sexual and non-sexual minorities have had to fight for years to have visibility in the communities that are supposed to be in place for them – let alone the mainstream. The terms used throughout the years – eventually moving towards acronyms like LGBT – have limited this visibility. 

 

The first expression used as an umbrella term was “gay” in the 1940-50s as slang for homosexual men and women. However, even though it was considered to be an umbrella term, it was generally associated with homosexual men and therefore left out homosexual women. During the feminist movement of the 1960-70s, those homosexual women began to refer to themselves as “lesbians,” and “gay and lesbian” became the expression. In the late 1990s, bisexual activist Maggie Rubenstein and transgender activist Susan Stryker–with help from many others–managed to get bisexual and transgender added to the expression. Both pushed for years to have organizations that supposedly respected their identities to also include them when talking about their community as a whole. To give a point of reference for how late this inclusion came, I was born before GLBT was used as an acronym. Let that sink in. Moving towards the mid-2000s, this acronym had been reordered to the now better-known LGBT, most likely to aid lesbian visibility. However, that acronym–though in common use by some people and organizations still today–is ever evolving to be more inclusive and already has a few alternate versions. LGBTIQ is a commonly used acronym that also includes intersex, queer and questioning people. The longest and most inclusive version is LGBTQIA+, which adds asexual people, as well as an open space for anyone else who does not feel cisgendered, heterosexual and/or sexual. The most common umbrella term for anyone who does not identify as cisgendered, heterosexual and/or sexual is queer, though this is a reclaimed slur and still seen as offensive by some who experienced this word at the height of its use as a derogatory term. Parts of the general populous also still use this term with its original definition of “odd” in other contexts, thus causing a reinforcement of the harmful idea that people who are not cisgendered, heterosexual, or sexual are not normal. 

 

All of these past and continual changes show that there are so many more categories of gender, sexual and non-sexual identities than can possibly be accounted for with a single acronym or umbrella term. Terms or acronyms are picked often times at convenience or by influence of the identity of the person using them, so it is very easy for groups to not be included. Even the more inclusive terms LGBTQIA+ and queer can still leave people feeling as if they are not represented, especially when their identity comes after many others. 

 

These acronyms also leave out the intersectional identities that affect these people directly, such as their race, class, or religion – to name only a few. All of one person’s identities come together to impact their place in society and the amount of privilege they have. This intersectionality is often ignored, as is exemplified in the trailer for the upcoming film Stonewall. In the trailer, the movie seems to portray the crucial riots as seen through the lens of a fictional character named Danny that is a white, cisgendered, gay man, instead of through the experiences of the many trans people of color and lesbians who were witnessed to be most involved in the riots. Director Roland Emmerich–a white, cisgender, gay man himself–continues to try to defend his choice by saying that he has managed to get a movie made that basically no studios would fund. He also keeps asking that all minorities of gender, non-sexual identities and sexual orientations should support the movie because it furthers their plight, even though it leaves out most of these minorities or inaccurately shares their history. Emmerich shows his lack of awareness of the privilege he has by not taking into account the intersecting identities of those he is asking support from and the offensiveness of the creative choices he took. Specifically, in a Buzzfeed interview, Emmerich continued to exemplify his privilege: “You have to understand one thing: I didn’t make this movie only for gay people, I made it also for straight people…I kind of found out, in the testing process, that actually, for straight people, [Danny] is a very easy in…[Straight audiences] can feel for him.” Emmerich chose a marginalizing way to try to gain empathy instead of letting the truth speak for itself. Overall, all of the promotional material for this movie has made it seem as though any audience that views this film and does not know the true history of Stonewall will only have the history further blurred because of his creative choices.

 

There are many other issues of representation, with one being the rare amount of people in the media who have disabilities and do not identify as cisgendered, heterosexual, or sexual. Society as a whole is very ableist and this is true for the non-cisgendered, non-heterosexual, non-sexual community as well. The only representation I could find in mainstream media was actress Marlee Matlin’s character on the L Word who represents the lesbian and d/Deaf communities. Otherwise, both of these groups are heavily marginalized and this marginalization exemplifies ableist and homophobic power structures present in society.  

 

There is not a lack of representation for non-cisgendered, non-heterosexual, non-sexual people who also have mental disorders, but there is a lot of misrepresentation of them. Assumptions are often made that mental disorders cause or are non-cisgender, non-heterosexual and/or non-sexual identities, or that such identities cause mental disorders. Until the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: Fifth Edition–the newest released edition–trans identities were considered to be mental disorders that needed to be treated. However, even if the onset of symptoms for a disorder and the realization of an identity happen simultaneously for a person, correlation does not mean causation. 

 

I’m not sure what the answer is for this crisis in visibility, or that there is even a simple answer. There is not one term or acronym that is fathomable at this point that can incorporate the experiences of all people that do not identify as cisgender, heterosexual or sexual–even if their movements can coincide into one that encompasses gender and sexuality issues. There is hope that while terms and acronyms are catching up, that the experiences that are normally ignored can become more visible with events and publicity. One of these types of events happened here in Pittsburgh this past summer–called Roots Pride==and focused on the experiences of people of color and other marginalized groups within the non-cisgendered, non-heterosexual, and non-sexual community. For now, we have to support events and campaigns that highlight the intersectionality and breadth of experiences, while also doing our best to use the most inclusive terms and acronyms available to us. It is also very important to keep in mind those still left out and to not oppose the evolution and improvement of these terms and acronyms. There’s a long way to go, but at least we are and have been moving in the right direction. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_MIb3mYznE       

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: Fourth Edition from the American Psychiatric Association