| Nothing is inclusive unless it is inclusive to the majority of people. I have no problem with "gay", "lesbian", "bisexual", "transexual" and other identities, but I don't like LGBTQIA+ (or whatever it is today) as a label because I believe that label erases the individual identities involved. In fact, labels in general tend to obscure reality, see [1] [2] [3]. As an activist I've seen that the strategy of taking the most radical position on every issue and putting up the tallest flag just doesn't work -- people get disengaged and stop going to your protests. When I saw "I" added to that list I was hoping it was "Incel" (talk about people who "can't be heterosexual") but, no, it is Intersex -- some Intersex people feel violated by the same surgeries that help transgender people feel whole. I was annoyed, as a foxworker, that "two spirits" was added to this list without consulting me. I certainly do contact female fox spirits but I also contact male fox spirits too and the gender of them doesn't concern me so much as the interspecies difference. I don't see any reason why I should buy into the reductivist gender paradigm of the day or dislike the Harry Potter books any more than I did when they came out. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisexual_erasure [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men_who_have_sex_with_men [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queer |
I have a lot of learning to do.