1. LGBTTQQIAA
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual,
Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersexual,
Asexual, Allies

2. Why all the letters?
 Argument for:
◦ It is important to show inclusion
◦ Everyone should be represented
◦ Everyone should be able to name
themselves
 Argument against:
◦ Burdensome and repetitive
◦ We should just have “all rights”
◦ Overkill on P.C.

3. Why Names are Important
 Language = Power
 When names are assigned they can be
damaging
◦ Historically, to name something is to control it through
classification
 When chosen they can be empowering
◦ To choose your own name is to “choose your identity”
 When re-claimed they can be motivating
◦ To take back something that was once degrading and
to own it as positive puts the power back in your
hands
 A name is an identity and classification. A word
assigned to mean something is symbolic of the
object.
 To name is to have the power

4. Apologetics to the P.C. Haters
(AKA “check your privilege”)
 Common complaint: there are too many names,
everyone wants their own special interest group, you
can’t even make a joke anymore without offending
someone
 Privilege = a right or benefit that is given to some
people and not to others
 CHECK YOUR PRIVILEGE
◦ Sometimes insulting statement, but good to remember for
yourself; ask yourself where your perspective is coming
from
◦ If something is bothering someone else but not you,
perhaps it is because you don’t have the same experience,
and vice versa
 Humor often comes at the expense of an identity, group,
or type of person
 Complaining that the world is too “P.C.” is a huge
exhibition of privilege
 Ask yourself, “Who has the power?”

5. Apologetics to the Umbrella
Termers
 Common complaint: it should just be “human
rights” rather than trying to name everything
 CHECK YOUR PRIVILEGE
 People need to see themselves represented
in larger culture in order to feel accepted,
valued, and like their lives matter
 By asking everyone to lump themselves
together into one term, you are asking them
to disappear
 Ask yourself, “How do I identify? Do I see
that in popular culture? Who am I not
seeing?”

6. Violence Awareness
 Hate crimes and violence against non-normative
sexually-identified individuals have been increasingly
reported as the discourse grows on the range of human
sexuality
 2012: 19.6% of single-bias crimes were motivated by
sexual orientation (http://www.fbi.gov)
 The Violence Prevention Works website reported that
“as many as 93% of teenagers hear derogatory words
about sexual orientation at least once in a while…and
half of teens surveyed hear such words every day at
school and in the community.”
(violencepreventionworks.org)
 LGBTTQQIAA students are two to three times more
likely to commit suicide than heterosexual students
 LGBTTQQIAA students comprise 30% of all completed
youth suicides

7. Why is this a Feminist Issue?
 Intersectional feminism stands by the
principle that when you raise up any
group, we all stand a little higher
 Freeing sexuality from patriarchal
confines that dictate gender roles is
critical to the feminist movement
 Normalizing cis-gender, heterosexual
choices is paramount to moving the
conversation forward

8. Current Issues
 Although gay marriage is legal according to the Supreme
Court, most of the people who are able to license marriages
have elected not to do so (denying people that same right)
 Kim Davis and others as religious martyrs
 Paradigmatic challenges leading to microaggressions
◦ These are everyday exertions of power that are usually the result
of privilege
◦ To a gay couple, “I have a gay question…”
◦ To a woman, “When are you getting married?”
◦ To a little boy, “Do you have a little girlfriend yet?”
 Additionally, it is still legal in many states for your employer to
fire you for having a lifestyle they don’t agree with
 In right-to-work states, they don’t even have to give you a
reason, but can fire you for any exhibition of difference
 In short, we have a long way to go in cultural acceptance,
dissembling of privilege, and celebration of diversity

9. Focusing our Power!
 We can continue to open the space in our culture
for conversation about non-normative identities
 We can personally withhold from judging people
who do not make the same choices as us
 We can support non-normative people in their
journeys and channel our resources to business
and other endeavors that are run by non-
normative peoples
 We can continue to lobby and support legislation
that supports individual choices and basic human
rights (such as gay marriage)
 We can teach our children not to bully those who
are different from themselves and set an
example of compassion and acceptance