LGBTQIA/GLBTQIA

the shorthand is ever changing and does not always reflect all members of the community. LGBTQIA is an umbrella term when talking about non heterosexual and non cis-gender identities. "Youth today do not define themselves on the spectrum of LGBT," says Shane Windmeyer, a founder of Campus Pride, a national student advocacy group (Minneapolis' Star Tribune). The emerging rubric is LGBTQIA: L = lesbian; G = gay; B = bisexual; T = transgender, trans-identified, two-spirit; Q = queer, questioning; I = intersex; A = asexual. Ever-expanding categories like "genderqueer" and "androgyne" might also be included. "When you see terms like LGBTQIA, it's because people are seeing all the things that fall out of the binary and demanding that a name come into being" (Jack Halberstam, Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender, and the End of Normal). When discussing, first identify the groups involved and use the acronym in later references. See also gay, gender, intersex, lesbian, queer, transgender.