This year, Valentine’s Day has competition — in Illinois that is. Instead of buying enough chocolate to last me through the Apocalypse, I’ll be planning my big gay wedding. That’s right: on Feb. 14, Illinois legislators are expected to vote on legislation legalizing same sex marriage. No, I mean gay marriage. Correction: LGBT marriage. Does it really matter? It does. In a generation that is breaking gender binaries and fighting for tolerance of any and all identities, it matters especially.

Since I knew what the word meant, I have been referring to myself as gay. My preference for other males has been fairly constant and consistent (don’t screw this up for me, Beyonce). I’m attracted to the same-sex and that’s that: I’m gay. Girls who are attracted to other girls are lesbians, and people who prefer either or are bisexuals. Right? Wrong. What do we call girls who identify as heterosexual but have gender-atypical tendencies? What about individuals who are merely curious? 

Expecting to appease all individuals diverging from a heterosexual identity using a 4-letter acronym is naive. Referring to a movement describing the acceptance of all sexual and gender minorities as a gay rights movement is inaccurate.

I get it; they need a name. People need something to refer to them in history and sociology textbooks. The aim in a name is to bring about recognition and awareness, just as much as it is about inclusion. And it’s been tried — maybe too many times. Either with obnoxiously long acronyms such as LGBTQQIA or with umbrella terms attempting uniformity such as “queer.” The common goal between the two: inclusion. 

But inclusion is the problem here — or at least the attempt to be all-inclusive is. While trying to devise a term that refers to specific individuals, there is an indirect exclusion of specific individuals too. LGBT does just that — it includes individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. But it excludes anyone that doesn’t adhere to one of these four labels or those who characterize their sexuality as fluid. 

The University is no stranger to inclusion. For example, the LGBT Resource Center provides resources for “people of all sexualities and gender identities.” And while I have been to and praise the resource center, I find the name problematic. If the center’s resources are available to people of any and all sexualities and gender identities, why advertise it otherwise? If we’re going to play the acronym game, I vote for the POASAGI Resource Center.

Just think about the historical race classifications in the United States: African American, Native American and Latino. They are extremely general and ambiguous labels. Anybody of Latin American descent can be considered Latino. A Mexican or a Brazilian is also a Latino. Does it create a general term to classify a group of people? Yes. Does it account for individual differences? No. 

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m confused. Yes, despite the fact that my identity is given a concrete, widespread label, I’m confused. Confused because my individual identity is gay, but my community identity is LGBT. Confused because I don’t just support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals, I support everyone in between. Confused because I’m not just gay and LGBT, I’m also Jewish and middle class. 

There isn’t an acronym with enough letters to incorporate all of my identities, and there isn’t an umbrella term that does that either. And although my intersecting identities don’t adhere to a single label or acronym, they are nonetheless salient. 

I don’t need any more or any fewer letters. And I’m not asking for replacements or even alternatives, just reconsideration. Because as much as LGBT is about giving a name to the movement’s people, it’s about inclusion too. Those who don’t conform to identity labels, who can’t pick a single letter to define them, who are somewhere in between G and B — they are the ones being left in the dark. 

And don’t think that there haven’t been attempts to address this issue. Trekkies will remember the IDIC acronym for Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. Students at universities such as Harvard and Lawrence embrace the GLOW acronym for Gay, Lesbian or Whatever. These acronyms are vague, but maybe that’s been the solution all along. To be so unspecific, so general that nobody has to pick and choose — they can just be.

Adam is a junior in ACES. He can be reached at [email protected].