The acronym LGBT gets longer and longer as it gets more and more inclusive, from LGBTQ to LGBTQIA+ as people began to feel it was starting to get too long. The LGBT of course stand for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender. But what about the other letters?

The Q in LGBTQ has been long debated by the LGBTQ community. A common answer,  is that Q is for queer. However, others argue that Q should not stand for queer, since it was long used as a slur. Instead, they argue that Q should be for questioning as a way of welcoming those unsure into the community. People who don’t want to argue may use the acronym LGBTQQ to include both questioning and queer as an umbrella term. But what about the IA+?

The I in LBGTQIA+ stands for intersex, or people who have both X and Y chromosomes. However many of people of intersex do not identify with the LGBTQ community.

The A in LGBTQIA+ stands for asexual. An asexual is someone who does not experience sexual attraction.

The plus of course, is a way of being as inclusive as possible without adding more letters. However, the plus sign completely out-writes those of non binary genders and sexualities other than the original LGBT.

Inside the plus, pansexuals are typically known for not caring what a person’s gender identity is or being attracted to men, women, and non binaries.

Also called genderqueer, non binary are those who do not identify with the “traditional” gender binary.

The plus in LGBTQIA+ also includes umbrella terms like monosexual and polysexual. Monosexuals being those who are only attracted to one gender while polysexuals are those who are attracted to one or more gender. 

Maybe Monosexual and Polysexual together would be better in acronyms . But there are two problems here.

The first  is that many people don’t know what monosexual and polysexual mean. Polysexual is often confused for polyamorus, and monosexual is frowned upon for our final reason.

Monosexual include straights.

This may seem surprising, because the LGBTQIA+ community does its best to be as inclusive as it can. If we included straights in the LGBTQIA+ community it wouldn’t be the community anymore. It would just be everybody.

There might, however, be an acronym that may please everyone.

In October of 2014, tumblr user asmartkid created a new acronym: SAGA. 

SAGA stands for Sexuality And Gender Acceptance and is a way to include everyone without all those letters. Since then many people have switched over to using SAGA instead of LGBTQIA+ and its variations.

So no, all of those letters are not necessary. But whichever acronym you use, remember what it means.