My Political Rant Book

LGBTQIAP2+? The never ending acronym

We've all heard it.

"There's way too many letters at this point."

That hip bio on Instagram/any basic social media where it's like "I'm a demiromantic polysexual bisexual demi-girl." 

There's entire guidebooks on labels, on each separate category and the types. Heck, there's over fifteen labels in the ace community itself by now, there are variations of bisexuality beyond pansexuality, there's the distinction between "romantic" and "sexual", there's partial attractions, no attractions, full attractions, words for expressing interest, words to express a state of confusion while you're questioning, words to express basically normal phases that may be part of your sexual/romantic experience but aren't exactly your sexual orientation. And I haven't even delved into gender yet. Is your head spinning?

There's non binary, non conforming, words to express genders that flow mainly as one but may change sometimes, genders that switch, to express people of one gender expression but another inner identity, for everything in between, for nothing and for two, and for more. It's basically everything and nothing at this point. Everybody's kind of in the loose, and I'm just wondering: is not accepting all these labels homophobic or transphobic? Is saying this is "just a phase" reiterating what parents have said to generations of teens coming out for a long time now? 

After perusing online forums for opinions and talking to my friends in the community, the short answer is: no. The long answer is it's not feasible to have so many labels, you may identify as any of these but the main labels in conventional mainstream will remain the base root. There's also vast opinions and diversity in those opinions, but most people agree: there's no need for a hundred thousand labels when it just boils down to one thing: personal freedom, privacy, rights, integrity and tolerance. Even if I don't know what your label means, me respecting your decision to live out your life as you please and not impose my will (regardless of whether it's a phase or not) is key.

Because goddamn, it's NONE OF MY FUCKING BUSINESS. It's your life, your romantic partners, your gender identity. I don't have to care. Live and let live.

But when I get to the SJW sect, and pronoun legislation (I'll cover that separately), and trying to infuse random labels into the existing binaries, taking space from those representing the rational majority, and thus making some people believe this is a shit-show of some crazy prancing rainbow-flag idiots, and taking us less seriously, well that's a loss to the whole community. This is what I meant in previous chapters by advocacy- more accessible advocacy that appeals rationally to the masses, rather than crazy label-throwing. I understand if it's a party or community event, but in debates, conferences or places where you should have convincing arguments, the SJW approach could actually prove detrimental to the community. Because ULTIMATELY YOU HAVE TO LIVE WITH THE MASSES AND THE MASSES DON'T LIKE "CRAZY". The centre of advocacy in my opinion should be acceptance and co-existence.

And that's the tea for today sis.