OUR LIVES | MARK MY WORDS
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The Continual Process of Naming Our Community BY MARK SEGAL
There’s been an interesting debate going on in our community, and it’s been a continuous one for many years now. It’s fascinating to watch the ins and outs of this issue. So let’s delve into it. Since the 1960s, and even before then, there has been a debate within our community on what to name ourselves, and that has sometimes been confused with how we self identify individually. While we each have a say in what our community might be labeled or not labeled, individually we each have a
right to our own identity. No one can take that away from you. For me this debate goes back to one of the earliest Gay Liberation Front meetings in New York in 1969. While we all agreed that we had to take our identity back from an oppressive society, the idea of change was difficult for some. Up to that point the word most used in society for us was ‘homosexual.’ What few realized at the time was that the name ‘Gay Liberation Front’ not only took back our identity but also changed
stereotypical views on who we were. It was a strong statement. Gay was our community’s identity until it became viewed more as a male label and others felt it let out others. Next up was Gay and Lesbian, followed soon by GLBT, then LGBT, and then several variations. And today we are still defining our community. The one that seems to be present is LGBTQ+ but others wish it to be LGBTQIA+. Of all the words that make up that LGBTQ acronym it’s the Q that has been the Continue on page 130
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LAVENDER JUNE 2-15, 2022
