LGBTTQQIAAP
Bisexual pride week September 20-26th
Bisexual pride day September 23rd
Not many people know the LGBT’s full acronym. When asking people what they thought most simply said, “I don’t know” or “LGBT+”. Even some LGBT community members didn’t know the full acronym. To specify the full acronym is LGBTTQQIAAP standing for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer, questioning, intersex, ally, asexual and pansexual. Though this doesn’t cover all sexualities many are umbrella terms, covering a wide variety. For example it doesn’t cover bear brotherhood, polysexual, androsexuality, menosexuality, zoosexuality, etc. If we were to add a letter for each sexuality the acronym would most likely go on until every letter in the alphabet was used up multiple times. Growing more and more everyday most people just go with LGBT, standing for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.
Now it’s very commonly known that homosexuality isn’t very much accepted since the beginning of the 12th century. Though little know that homosexuality was a very common practice in ancient and middle aged times. The most commonly known sexuality practiced was bisexuality. Unnamed until around the 1850’s, it was not odd for men to have relations with both males and females. Though females on the other hand weren’t commonly the same. Most were heterosexual though it wasn’t frowned upon if a female was bisexual. Later on in the 1940’s, early 1950’s they found that 28% of females and 46% of males were either bisexual or responded erotically to both genders.
Later on in history in 1967, because of bisexual activist Robert A. Martin (aka Donny the Punk), Columbia University was the first school to officially recognize a gay student group. During the same year San Francisco created the first gay organization named Sexual Freedom League; which two years later included bisexuals.
Bisexuals became more prominent in media during the 1970s starting in 1972 when bisexual activist Don Fass founded the National Bisexual Liberation group in New York City which issued The Bisexual Expression. This most likely being the earliest bisexual newsletter. In 1979 A. Billy S. Jones, a bisexual founding member of the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays, helped organize the first black gay delegation to meet with President Jimmy Carter. Around the 1960’s-70’s bisexuality was a large part of the LGBT community, helping all other groups. Many people in the LGBT community in general are opened minded people mainly because they have lived most of their lives not being accepted. They know the real emotional pain it can cause.
When I asked around what people think of when they hear LGBT many responded with, “I think of a community that gets hate that it doesn’t deserve, but also a community that overall is the only possible safe space for rejected people” and, “A large community of unique individuals” or, “I think of a big family that watches out for each other.” One of the quotes that stuck out the most stated, “I’m happy to hear people talking about it and not being afraid to bring the subject up. More people are becoming acceptant and it’s about damn time. Less people are in the closet and living in fear of being discovered. It’s finally legal to have same sex marriage! We’re heading in the right direction.” This quote was stated by a 72 year old heterosexual female. This is pure evidence that more people are becoming acceptant even if they aren’t homosexual themselves.
That’s the main goal of LGBT communities, pride walks, and festivals. All they are seeking is the same acceptance as a normal every day heterosexual person. They want to be treated the same as everyone else. They want the hate and the worry of disownment or a violent reaction to them “coming out” to end. They want to get to the point where one day they won’t have to “come out”. It’s not a normal thing to do. People don’t come out about being heterosexual. We just jump to conclusion that if they are male they’ll like females and vis versa. Really though that isn’t always how it is. Everyone’s their own person. We’re all unique humans. Being homosexual shouldn’t define us, it’s just a part of us. We should become more open minded and accept that. Accept that everyone’s different in their own way whether it’s their sexuality or their appearance. Accept that not everyone is the gender they were born in or that not everyone has a gender. Accept that the outside appearance isn’t what is on the inside. Acceptance is the goal to love the life we are a part of and live a life we love. Embrace yourself. Bisexual pride!
