Pink Therapy has made a case for the LGBT term to be changed to “Gender and Sexual Diversity.” Are we ready as a community to change names?
LGBT has been used since the 1990s to denote people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or trans. The acronym has grown, but still cannot contain the diversity of the people who are not straight and monogamous.
According to their latest press release Pink Therapy say:
LGBT ignores the true diversity of sexuality and gender. Pink Therapy believes GSD, Gender and Sexual Diversity, is a more inclusive label.
LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender), and its extended forms (LGBTIQQA, or LGBT+) are exclusive of the great variety of people who don’t live ‘traditional’ lifestyles (e.g. heterosexual or monogamous).
The term ‘GSD’, or Gender and Sexual Diversity, encompasses people from any lifestyle, sexual orientation or gender identity.
Gender and sexuality exists in such a wide variety of forms, that LGBT fails to describe a large number of people. Easily recognisable groups, such as asexual and BDSM, are ignored by the classical acronym, but many people have identities which are an amalgam of different types, such as being bi-romantic, but homosexual, a member of the BDSM community, and a swinger.
The result of this exclusion is both legal and practical. BDSM is legally considered by many psychiatrists as a ‘disorder’ in most countries, and perceived publicly as a perversion, despite all scientific evidence to the contrary. Couples who engage in a BDSM or kink relationship can and do lose their jobs and children if they are discovered.
Not only that, couples in these often uncounted groups are not provided for by mainstream counselling services, due to a lack of awareness or concern. In recent research, Pink Therapy found 38% of their respondents identified as having a BDSM lifestyle and 48% of the heterosexuals identified as BDSMers who had very few places to resolve their relationship issues.
Respecting how a person feels, and not how a person ‘should’ feel, has always been a central motivation for the Human Rights movement. GSD extends this basic right to people who are excluded by LGBT+.
Pink Therapy advocates the new terminology in the hopes it will foster greater inclusivity.
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Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, its management or editorial teams. If you'd like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.