The LBGTQ+ community has risen over the years. In fact, there are about 9 million people in America that considers themselves as LGBTQ+. That is a lot of people when you look at it. I believe that there’s nothing wrong with this community growing. However, I have to say that there are quite a few things holding this community back. In fact, some of the points I am going to mention is true about a lot of communities. I came up with four main points that hold the LGBTQ+ community back. A lot of the points that I have come up with has to do with general information about the LGBTQ+ community in itself. Let’s begin with the first thing.
1. So Many Terms
If you look at the LGBTQ+ community when it first started, you realize that it only had LGBT in its name. Now, there is so many names and different pronouns out there that the plus sign is added. You could make a dictionary out of all of the terms that have been created over the years. I’m not saying that there’s nothing wrong with this, but it makes it extremely difficult for people to learn any information about the LGBTQ+ community.
I will get to why that’s a big issue in my next point, but it’s really hard to keep up with it. It’s like learning a new language. How would people that aren’t associated with the community ever remember all of these terms? There are about 80 different vocabulary words for the LGBTQ+ community. That article was made 6 years ago, so the number of vocabulary words is probably in triple digits. No one is ever going to remember all of that, especially if the number of words keeps growing at the pace that it’s going. This leads me to my next point about what’s holding the LGBTQ+ community back.
2. Forcing Everyone To Understand You
With this laundry list of vocabulary words and pronouns, a lot of people in the LGBTQ+ community expects you to know every piece of information about them. You need to know their preferred pronoun, identity, and all information about their identity. In my opinion, it is not that serious. If they understand who you are, knowing the ins and outs about what the vocabulary word is irrelevant. If they make a mistake and call you by the wrong pronoun, don’t freak out and rage at them. They are not exposed to this all of the time, so they are bound to make mistakes here and there.
Now, if someone is directly insulting you or looking at you funny, then you can be mad about that. If someone makes a mistake about your identity, just correct them. I know it can be frustrating correcting people all of the time for messing up, but it’s something that you have to get used to. People that speak a different language have to do this all of the time, but they don’t complain about it like that. The truth is, there will never be 100% of the population that knows all of the information about the LGBTQ+ community. That should be fine though, as long as the community is widely accepted by people.
3. Fake People In The Community
Now, this is something that doesn’t happen that
There are people in the LGBTQ+ community that isn’t really in the community. You hear about guys that are transitioning to become a girl, but there’s nothing about them that really defies that. It’s not really those people’s fault, but it’s hard to figure out if someone’s what they claim to be without any evidence. Part of the reason has to do with the lack of information people have about the LGBTQ+ community.
4. Fake News & Over Publicized
Over the years, there has been a lot of fake news that has been spread out. This leads to LGBTQ+ stories being put up on the news. The problem is that a lot of these stories simply aren’t true. Here’s an example of 6 news stories that turned out to be fake that involved information about the LGBTQ+ community. A lot of this information that gets spread around comes from LGBTQ+ news sources as well, which makes them less credible in the long run. It’s one thing to get your news from a media source, but you have to make sure that they are real.
A lot of people, especially this year have been making fake news stories to gain attention from the audience. That is not the way that you want your community to be remembered by. You want people to be informed about your community, but not to the point where people get tired of hearing about it. When it gets over publicized like that, people pay less attention to it. It’s like “I heard you the first time, I don’t need to hear it 58 more times.”
Final Words
People see you and people hear you. Your community is definitely going in the right direction. More people are coming out and showing their true colors, which is wonderful. Just don’t go overboard with things and your community will be fine.
In my opinion, I never dislike a community or movement unless they personally affect my life in some way. In this case, the LGBTQ+ community has done nothing to me so I have nothing against you. This is just some constructive criticism from someone on the outside looking in. Keep informing people about your community and don’t make it so complicated for people that would like to get behind you.
