“As a lesbian, I’m tired of the attempt to label and include every sexuality that isn’t heterosexuality.”

First we were the ‘gays’ then we were ‘the gay community’ then we were the LGB community and then another letter got added, then another until we’ve arrived at this alphabet soup of an acronym LGBTQQIA. As a lesbian, I’m tired of the attempt to label and include every sexuality that isn’t heterosexuality.

Up until a few weeks ago, I wasn’t aware that another “Q” was added to the already one letter too long acronym. Furthermore, I had to research what the other newly added letters, “I” and “A” stood for. Apparently the letters stand for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Ally.

I appreciate the effort from whoever thought that every label a non-heterosexual can be called should be added to the acronym, however it’s not necessary, really. I know everyone likes to be included and as politically correct as some people think all “34,000” letters in the acronym are, it actually doesn’t make the group more inclusive, just more ridiculous and that leads to even more exclusion.

Quite frankly, I feel like a loser to be included in part of this ridiculously long acronym. I would actually rather be called a non-heterosexual than identify as anything that might get added to the acronym.

Let’s break it down and decide if all of these extra letters are actually needed, shall we?

So LESBIAN is considered to be the “politically correct” term referring to gay females; however, as a gay female, I actually prefer to be called gay rather than lesbian, or better yet, how about just Ashley?

The term GAY is generally used when referring to gay males, but in my circle of friends, most of the gay males actually identify as queer. Ironically enough, that letter is actually another letter in the “alphabet soup.” Does that mean we are now playing favorites by letting gay boys have two letters in the acronym or is there another gender of homosexual people I’m not aware of?

Next we have TRANSGENDERED, which seems to be an appropriate letter for a change. For those of you who don’t know what transgendered means, it means that a person who was born with the genitalia of a certain sex, but identifies as the other sex internally. Or for a better example, a person born a boy, who acts, thinks, and dresses as a girl or vice versa.

As we said before, QUEER is equivalent to GAY, so now, that leaves us with the other “Q” in the alphabet, QUESTIONING.

Why do we need questioning? If you are questioning, then you shouldn’t have your own letter. I’m sorry. You should wait to figure out which letter you identify as. That’s like adding a K for Katy Perry because she kissed a girl and liked it.

The LGBT community has been fighting for 30 plus years for people to understand that homosexuality is NOT a choice. Questioning implies that someone is choosing whether or not he/she is gay. Questioning goes against everything I identify as and fight for. Therefore, the second Q is not necessary.

Next we have INTERSEX. Why does that belong in the phrase/acronym/alphabet soup?

According to www.intersexualite.com, many people with intersex identify as gay or lesbian, but also, at the same time, many intersex adults find the issue of homosexuality irrelevant to their perception of themselves. Therefore, I’m fairly positive that intersex is another wasted letter.

So what about an ALLY? It’s nice to include everyone, but I don’t think that people who support homosexuality should be included in the acronym. It’s great that they support homosexuality, but we are not fighting for the equality of allies, they already are equal. Allies have the legal right to be married, vote, pay taxes and everything. We are fighting for the equality of lesbian/bi/gay/transgendered peoples. It’s as simple as that.

Lastly, we have BI. There are a lot of mixed feelings and emotions about bisexuals. I admit, I too have mixed emotions about bisexuals. In my opinion, there are two types of bisexuals… one type that is attracted to the person regardless of her/his gender, and there is the Lindsay Lohan’s of the world who find a cute lesbian that looks like a boy, experiments with them, has a good time (of course), and then calls themselves a bisexual because they were attracted to one girl. But when a bisexual person is dating the same sex that person is gay to the world, so why do we need the letter?

As for ALLY, well, as they say in kindergarten, you get a gold sticker for supporting your gay friends and family. But you shouldn’t get a letter in the acronym. Just because you marched beside me in the Pride Parade doesn’t mean you’ve experienced the sort of discrimination a gay person has. When we give you a letter, we make a mockery of ourselves.

And that is my point. This trail of letters is about as silly as a bathhouse. We may as well start adding letters for all groups that feel ostracized whether or not it’s for who their members like to sleep with. Hermaphrodites, asexuals, and Muslim fundamentalist groups, please apply to get your letter, too! At one point these letters worked as one voice to make it safe to be openly gay, but not it’s clearly become a sick game to make everyone feel included. Our community takes a step backward in our fight for equality every time a letter gets added. Just think about that.