LGBT+ or GLBT+ stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, with the plus standing for anyone not included under the main four categories. The term has been used since the 1990s, the term is an adaptation of the initialism LGB, marking the inclusion of transgender people in the community. It is the most commonly used term to refer to the community and it is intended to emphasize a diversity of sexuality and gender identity-based cultures. The term can be used to refer to anyone who is not heterosexual or not cisgender, instead of exclusively to people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.
Variation
Several other variants of the acronym exist, some of the most popular include:
- LGBTA(+): Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Asexual/Aromantic/Agender
- LGBTQ(+): Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning
- LGBTI(+): Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex
Many other acronyms that are combination of these. Other, less commonly seen variants may include letters such as "U" for "unsure", "C" for "curious", "TS", "2S", or "2" for "two-spirit", "P" for polyamorous or pansexual, "SA" for "straight allies", "D" for demisexual and demiromantic, "H" for "HIV-affected" or "Hijra", or an "O" for "other".
Initialisms such as LGBTTQQIAAP (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, ally, pansexual) have also resulted, although such initialisms are often criticized for being leaving some people out, as well as issues of placement of the letters within the new title. They are simultaneously criticized for being too confusing and too long to be used in normal speech. This has resulted in people attempting to create new acronyms, such as MOGAI (Marginalized Orientations, Gender And Intersex), GSRM (Gender, Sexuality, and Romantic orientation Minorities), QUILTBAG (queer, unsure, intersex, lesbian, transgender, bisexual, asexual/aromantic, gay) and similar terms, however LGBT continues to be the most widely recognized term.
Alternatives
Flags
Flags have been made over a variation of years, due to updates and changes being made within the community. The original rainbow pride flag dates back to 1978, when it was created by San Francisco-based queer artist Gilbert Baker.
Over the next two years, its design was changed for different reasons. At the time, hot pink was a non-standard color in flag fabric production, and deemed too costly to reproduce. The turquoise and indigo stripes were also dropped in favor of royal blue when organizers of San Francisco’s Gay Freedom Day Parade wanted to split the flag in half to fly across the street and wanted equal stripes on both sides.
The progress pride flag was coined in 2018 by Graphic designer Daniel Quasar in order to show progress and inclusion of queer POC and trans POC. Since then more variants of the progress flag have arisen.
The 'ultimate queer flag', or 'mega LGBT+ flag' was coined by a user going by Adora on January 26th of 2021. On the top, the blue is for transmasculine, the pink is for transfeminine, the white is for any outherine/xenic genders, the intersex flag is for all variants of intersex individuals, while the purple is for transneutral and transandrogynous people. On the bottom, it has the multisexual flag for all multisexual identities, the rainbow for any same-gender loving identities, and the last flag is supposed to resemble the a-spec flag for any a-spec identities. The black stripe is for gender non-conformity and pronoun-non conformity, while the design in the middle is supposed to represent POC and sex workers, as red umbrellas are often associated with sex work.
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Bi inclusive progress flag.
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Social justice pride flag.
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The unity flag.
