Rainbow alphabet
In the GLBTIQA world we seem to be obsessed with alphabet soup and umbrellas. We spend large amounts of our time and energy deciding on which letters belong and which are superfluous and we argue about which term means something specific and which is an umbrella term designed to save us all the effort of trying to remember a few of the separate elements of our various constituencies.
If we are not complaining that we have been left out we seem to be complaining that we have been inappropriately included.
I have even seen disputes about the correct order of the letters in the soup. Surely there are more important ways to spend our time than quarrelling about these things. There are injustices to be righted, misunderstandings to be corrected, misguided people and organisations to be educated and the ungodly (and often the godly) to be smitten.
I am frequently reminded of the passage in “The Life of Brian” where people are complaining that they do not belong to the Judean People’s Front for Liberation, or the Judean Front for People’s Liberation but rather to the Liberation Front for the People of Judea. We have more in common in the way of wrongs to be righted and truth to be told than we have in the way of differences of nomenclature to be defended to the death.
Who needs an umbrella so large that it cannot be moved from its fixed position, or one so small that it covers nothing, or one that is in tatters because some of those who thought they lived under it have torn off their bit and gone elsewhere? Who needs an umbrella so vague that it is virtually virtual and is therefore of minimal use to those who need practical outcomes.
It is surely more sensible to accept that no single term will satisfy everybody, no alphabet soup will be large enough to nourish our whole society within Society at large. Perhaps we should adopt a pragmatic view based on the premises that 1) if we use a term that is out of favour with one segment it is not out of malice but out of ignorance or exhaustion (the terms seem to multiply like the heads of the Hydra) and 2) it is possible to deal with problems concerning one element or many without compromising a general intention to work for the good of all, taking problems one at a time rather than trying to build palaces in the sky before we have put together the necessary foundations at ground level.
I recently came across a document that claimed to cover both the transexed and the transsexual. I wasn’t sure what the difference might be but I am prepared to accept that there are people who claim to be one and not the other. And people who claim to be both. And people who are sure they are neither. And I am prepared to work for all of these people.
But it might help if those who use extended alphabet soups were to offer definitions of the terms they adopt. I am sure there are many using the same term for different phenomena, and many using different terms for the same phenomena. Maybe it is time for a glossary of terms to provide us with clues.
But I don’t want a glossary that thinks it is the only true authority. Let us live and let live before we put our shoulders to the collective wheel. But let us at least know what shape the wheel is, and which way it is going.
By KATHERINE CUMMINGS
Information Worker, NSW Gender Centre
The only letters that matter are H-U-M-A-N and the rest can be let go of … the alphabet soup followers make us look S-T-U-P-I-D.
Thank you Katherine. Regardless of our sex, sexuality or gender each of us has an equal right to have our voice heard and to assert our right to dignity, and freedom from violence, discrimination or shame. It’s important that the general community and our own communities understand the differences indicated by ‘the alphabet’, and why the differences are important to us.
I describe myself as I see myself. In the 60s, when the word ‘camp’ had currency that’s what I was. When I, with many others now represented in the ‘soup recipe’, was fighting for gay liberation I was ‘gay’. Now I am homosexual (which is not included in the soup recipe. I am not gay because of the connotation it carries of belonging to ‘the gay community’, with which I no longer feel any affinity. I am also queer, a term I don’t use publicly as too many non-queer people use it as a catchall.
Just as it’s vital that the age-care sector provides one with adequate and appropriate services, it is equally vital that all other services provided by government or community are adequate and appropriate to one’s specific needs, taking into account sex, sexuality and gender.
Both the NSW and Federal Governments are working to understand our diverse needs through recent ministerial consultations. The Lobby has also conducted a number of consultations focused on some specific groups. ACON’s Diversity Statement claims to serve the interests of all the ‘soup groups’ without naming them.
Progress is being made at an official and bureaucratic level. What remains is for us to, as you suggest Katherine, either come up with one acceptable name or for us to clearly define our terms, and the reasons for their importance to those who use them.
In the 60s, life was simple, though mostly simply dull. It’s the acknowledgement, acceptance and naming of our differences that make this seventy-two year old happier than I have ever been.
Thank you kindly~ It’s a particularly persistent example of eating our own kind when people take this so far as to call someone a bigot or ‘enemy’ for not agreeing on how to use the dang alphabet the same.
so sick of everyone wanting to be called something different