Don't ask us how we stumbled upon it, but here's a lesbian writing about this coming weekend's gay pride parade. She adores the parade, but has some problems with it, like this one:
Stand proud Gay Parcheesi Players with Hay Fever! You are not alone. Soon, you too will have a float in the parade. And a special flag. This is how we got the new acronym GLBTIQQ. We used to be the gay community. Now, we are the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transexual, intersex, queer and questioning community. If we really want to be genuinely inclusive, we should add FSP for friendly straight people. And then add some vowels, because they're feeling oppressed and excluded from the acronym. Then add T for Tired, because you're exhausted by the time you get to the end of it. GBLTIQQUOEFSPAT. This is how the Parade got so long.
No one will be left out! Except the numbers. Maybe the genderqueer folks can be the numbers. Or maybe we can just use ?. The Parade is now as long as ?. They should have a halftime break. They can have straight men come out and play football for us.
Link.
She talks about the "inclusion" problem, but can't understand it. Exclusion implies norms and standards: "You measure up to this, and you can be included. If not, you can't." Homosexuality is all about eliminating norms and standards: "Accept everyone and everything." Consequently, anyone who wants recognition requests inclusion, the gay community must say yes, no matter how ridiculous it renders their event. It's tolerance in a vacuum, and good things in a vacuum always go bad. The six-lettered acronym for the gay pride parade is just a microcosm of the problem with the gay movement in general.
