Sexuality - or a sandwich.

[davywavy]

During the bickering which followed one of my recent intemperate rants on these pages, someone used the acronym 'LGBT'. I was fairly confused by this. My immediate reaction was 'What the Hell has a Sandwich got to do with this?" and it took me about 24 hours before I finally figured out, from the context, that 'LGBT' actually stood for 'Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Trans(Gendered? Vestite? I haven't figured the T out yet)' and that it was the latest linguistic ghettoification of a fair swathe of the human race.
There are two sorts of Political Correctness. There's 'not being rude', which is a laudable aim, and there's 'creating tortuous acroynms and euphamisms which, by dint of trying to be all things to all people, simply succeed in belittling the very people they seek to avoid offending'. LGBT is, in my opinion, a fine example of the latter.
You see, when it comes to language and causing offense and hurt with it, it's very often not the words that are used, but the context and intent with which they are used. A good example of this is the Spastics Society, which underwent a lengthy and costly rebranding exercise to 'Scope' (because 'Spastic' is used as an insult), only for kids in playgrounds to be calling each other 'Scopers' within a matter of months.
What really made me think about 'LGBT' was the fact that it's a phrase I've never heard any one of my variously-sexualitied friends use to describe themselves. In short, it's a phrase created by people who don't fit the term to describe a large number of people who they think do. But what do I know? I've never gazed lustfully at another bloke, so I'm not really qualified to comment. However, something I realised when I first really started hanging out with people who wouldn't be classified as a '1' on the Kinsey scale some years ago is that it's only fair and polite to let the people described define the terms used to describe them - within reason, anyway - and I really don't think that 'LGBT' does this.

But like I say. What do I know?
So, in the spirit of exploration and investigation I'd like to ask the non-completely straight people out there: What term would you use to describe your sexuality?
[Poll #544964]

Still, I suppose in a few weeks time, kids in playgrounds up and down the land will be calling "Oh, you're so LGBT!" at each other, and so then Students Unions will have to think of yet another non-judgemental catch all phrases to describe humanity which, whilst being created to avoid any possible offense, will also be just as completely meaningless.
God, when I was at University we actually had to use our time for things like work.*

^{* neilhist and godzuki, you stay out of this.}

Comments

[taimatsu]

Support. It was a way to meet people who were also not-straight. If I had not gone to LGBsoc I would have known about two people who were gay/lesbian/bi, and felt like a complete weirdo. As it was, I met other people like me and could go 'Oh look, there are lots of other people who aren't straight, and they're all getting on with things and being nice and normal and funny and flamboyant; liking girls isn't a problem.' I made some good friends, some of whom I still keep in touch with. I didn't actually meet any long-term partners through LGBsoc, so the meat-market thing wasn't quite that for me (and the one short-term partner I met I would have met anyway through other friends).

It's easy to feel, in a big university full of randy students, that no-one else is gay, and that's really lonely and hard to deal with. LGBsoc makes a big difference to that, whether or not you use it to find a partner.

It also does things like showing gay-interest films (which wouldn't make it on the screen at, let's say, a JCR video night) and running various campaigns when necessary.

The website says the current mission statement is:

The Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Society exists --

• to offer a safe and friendly environment where LGB students and members, and their friends, can socialise freely;
  
• to offer a wide and varying entertainment program for LGB students and members;
  
• to offer support and welfare services for the LGB community, regarding their lives and their sexuality;
  
• to be visible as a net of support for all those unclear about their sexuality within the university;
  
• to offer LGB students and members the opportunity to meet in an arena independent of politics;
  
• to promote and integrate the LGB community within the university and the city of Oxford.