Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex, asexual… While many pride marches are taking place this month in France, the choice of words varies from one organizing collective to another. franceinfo offers you a glossary, commented on by a linguist and activists.
LGBT+, LGBTQ+, LGBTQIA+… In this month of June, Pride Month, different acronyms of varying lengths flourish on social networks, in the media and on the banners of prides or pride marches. These numerous parades organized all over France, especially in Paris on Saturday June 24, defend the diversity of sexual orientations and gender identities. But what do these letters mean and why are there so many variations? Franceinfo offers you a glossary, necessarily not exhaustive, which you can consult directly by scrolling down this article.
“You can add letters ad infinitum”
The acronym LGBT began to be used in the 1990s in the Anglo-Saxon world by organizations wishing to defend the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. In France, it was not until the early 2000s that lesbian and gay (LG) interassociations added the B and the T to their acronym, World Pride in Rome having played an accelerator role, according to Italian researcher Massimo Prearo . Recent years have seen the appearance of the letters Q (queer), I (intersex) and more rarely A (asexual) but it is “very difficult to date, because it is not homogeneous”explains Mireille Elchacar, professor of linguistics at Teluq University in Quebec.
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Author of a study on the designations of gender and sexual identity, she observes that “for militant groups, it is important that it is not uniform precisely to be able to adapt to all situations. The advantage of this acronym is that you can add letters or symbols to the infinite, which makes it possible not to forget anyone”. And even if this acronym is not always practical – for example to create adjectives – these are, notes the researcher, the “identity concerns” And “the desire for inclusion” who wins.
Here is a non-exhaustive glossary that franceinfo has produced using Robert, Larousse and usito (the dictionary of the Quebec office of the French language, often more complete):
L. as lesbian : a woman who is emotionally and/or sexually attracted to another woman.
G. as Gay : designates both a man who is emotionally and/or sexually attracted to another man and a homosexual person regardless of gender.
B. as bisexual or bisexual : person who is sexually and/or emotionally attracted to someone of the same or opposite sex.
T. like trans : person who has a gender identity different from their gender assigned at birth, “whether or not she alters her gender expression or her body to match that identity”specifies the Quebec usito.
Q. for queer : is said of a person whose sexual orientation or identity does not correspond to the heteronormative social model (Le Robert), who does not identify with any category relating to their sexual orientation and their gender identity (Quebec dictionary use). “Queer, was originally an insult in English, to speak pejoratively of homosexual people, recalls linguistics professor Mireille Elchacar. It is therefore this desire to reverse the stigma, a way of regaining a certain power after having been sidelined”. “Today, it simply means ‘who does not fit into any of the boxes, who does not want to be named by one denomination’. And so we have a blur that appeals to people who want to use it.”
The Q can also sometimes refer to the term “questionning” which, according to the lexicon of the international association Rainbow Project, “describes the situation of a person who is unsure of their sexual orientation”.
I. like intersex : person who has the physical characteristics belonging to both the female and the male sex.
AT. as asexual or asexual :psomeone who does not feel or who feels very little sexual desire. “An asexual person can have a romantic orientation, specifies the Quebec usito. So she can, for example, be in a romantic relationship, but not feel the desire to have sex with her or his partner.”
The A can also sometimes designate the term aromantic, a psomeone who does not feel or who feels very little amorous attraction for others but who can feel sexual desire. Or refer to the word ally, ie someone who is not LGBT + but who campaigns for the defense of the rights of the people concerned.
The + : “It tends to mean that you can recognize yourself in other identities. And you can change your identities over the course of your life. Nothing is fixed”summarizes Matthieu Gatipon Bachette, former spokesperson for Inter-LGBT. “We try to have the full spectrum and there it makes it possible not to forget anyone”adds Mireille Elchacar.
Be inclusive and speak “to Madame Michu”
“A militant, he is into semantic innovation and he makes concepts evolve, said Matthieu Gatipon-Bachette, spokesperson for the Paris Pride March. If you don’t make them evolve, somewhere you make people invisible.” However, the event has chosen to stick to the acronym LGBT +. The addition of a letter must be approved by all the organizing associations, justifies Matthieu Gatipon-Bachette. From the sex work union to LGBT police officers to recreational organizations, “you have to get people to agree, you have to explain to them, do some pedagogy. You have associations which are less politicized than others.” “It is more difficult to move than people who are radical”, he adds.
“Adding an ‘I’, for example, is to highlight intersex people who benefit from very few means, associations, which benefit from very little visibility.”
Matthieu Gatipon-Bachette, former spokesperson for inter-LGBTat franceinfo
On the posters of the Pride of the suburbs, which was held on June 3 in Saint-Denis, it is the acronym LGBTQI + which was retained. The letter “A” was discarded by the “political circle”, says Yanis Khames, the collective’s spokesperson, after a discussion on “the materiality of the violence experienced” by asexual and aromantic people. “The debate exists. For us it is not central to our movement. We want to be as inclusive as possible”, summarizes the collective.
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For Matthieu Gatipon-Bachette, the challenge is also not to cut himself off from the general public. The use of the “+”, politically consensual, thus allows “to avoid lengthy acronyms”. “The former president of Inter-LGBT, Aurore Foursy, often said ‘You have to talk as if you were talking to Madame Michu who is in the depths of Lozère and LGBT, she doesn’t know what it is ‘, remembers the activist. There is also a pedagogical approach, popular education, it is something that we have a lot at heart.