Questions and Misconceptions

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I decided to make this thread because I often see the same questions and misconceptions occurring within this section of the forum. I'll also use this thread to define some terms that you may encounter.

What does LGBT stand for?

Lesbian
Gay
Bisexual
Transgender

Why is it sometimes written LGBT+?

Simply put, there are too many terms that fall under the community that it would be impractical to list all of them. The plus is a way of saying ‘etc’ but many consider the plus to be unnecessary.

What does the ‘Alphabet Mafia’ mean?

In certain homophobic and transphobic circles, some people started using the phrase ‘the Alphabet Mafia’ to talk negatively about the LGBT community. In response, some people within the LGBT community started using the phrase ironically. It is now something of a running joke within the community.

Is asexuality a part of the LGBT community?

Yes!

What does asexual mean?

A person that feels little to no sexual attraction.

What does aromantic mean?

A person that feels little to no romantic attraction.

What does Aro Ace mean?

A person who is Aro Ace is aromantic and asexual.

Are all asexuals also aromantic and vice versa?

Nope. You could be aromantic but not asexual. Or you could be asexual but not aromantic.

Are there really six million genders?

No.

This is a common misconception. There used to be an internet community under the acronym MOGAI. It was a proposed alternative acronym to LGBT.

The user base was largely centred on Tumblr. Most users were teenagers involved in fandom spaces.

A significant amount of the labels and terms used were hypothetical and abstract; such as discussions of how a character who is otherworldly (a demon/angel or alien etc) might identify with concepts such as gender.

It was largely for fun. Although a few users used the terms seriously. As well as fandom discussions, some users used the space to experiment with and create new labels to describe their experiences. These labels were sometimes quite vague or poorly defined which is to be expected from someone just starting to figure out their identity.

However, it didn’t last. Trolls found the Tumblr pages and used them as a reason to mock the LGBT community. Even mocking terms that were only used once or twice then faded into obscurity and were never used again. Sometimes these are referred to as ‘dead genders’. It’s not that uncommon for proposed words to fade into obscurity. Whether or not a word is adopted into a language depends if there’s much demand for it.

There are still a fair amount of what I’d consider to be subcategories but I think it can be simplified to Male, Female, Both or Neither. That’s what it comes down to really.

I think that it’s important to remember that there’s no official committee that verifies whether a term is valid or not. You might see terms and flags for labels that only a small handful of people identify with or maybe someone made a flag (just because they can) and it’s not really used. It happens.