This article is not about how we need to accept the LGBTQ+ community (although that is true). This article is about how the LGBTQ+ community needs to accept more than just men loving men and women loving women.

This article is about how the community needs to stop saying other sexualities aren't "gay enough."

Because, really, what the hell does that even mean? Gayness isn't a roller coaster -- there shouldn't be a "you must be this gay to be gay" sign barring the gate from any sexuality that isn't deemed to be...non-straight enough? I don't understand the idea behind it.

For clarification: I'll be using the word "gay" to mean "not straight" because it's more and more commonly being used as an umbrella term for that exact thing. I'll be using the word "straight" to mean "only attracted to the opposite sex, romantically and sexually." There are more and more people beginning to identify one way sexually (like homosexual) and another way romantically (like biromantic). If either of these don't start with "hetero," then that person isn't straight.

Anything that doesn't match the definition of straight goes into the alphabet soup of the LGBTQ+ community. Like boys and girls, but are dating someone who identifies as the opposite sex? Congratulations! You're in the LGBTQ+ community because you're bisexual.

Like all genders on the spectrum, but are dating someone identifying as the opposite sex? Congratulations! You're in the LGBT+ community because you're pansexual. Feel no sexual attraction towards any gender? Congratulations! You're in the LGBT+ community because you're asexual. You all fit under the umbrella term of "gay" because you aren't straight.

It isn't a difficult concept, yet people seem to have a hard time understanding it.

The only time I'll ever accept the argument of "not gay enough" is if we're using the strict meaning of gay = homosexual. If that's the case, then yes, technically speaking, bisexuality, pansexuality, and asexuality don't count as "gay enough" because they aren't into just their same gender (or, in the case of asexuality, aren't attracted at all).

But that doesn't seem to be the argument.

The argument always seems to go this way: a girl says she's bi but is dating a boy, so she's told she's straight and invading the safe spaces of the LGBTQ+ community because she's currently in a relationship with the opposite sex. If this same girl is instead dating another girl, she's then told she's only lying about being bi and is clearly just a lesbian because she's dating the same sex.

The arguments boil down to two things: thinking if you're dating someone of the opposite gender (even though you like more than just that gender), you're invading the safe spaces of the LGBTQ+ community and thinking it's only possible to like one gender.

Both are incredibly stupid.

Basically, if you're not heterosexual (or heteroromantic), you're gay enough to be gay. I never thought it was something that would have to be broken down because it's so simple, but it has to be. This "you aren't gay enough" thing is utter bullshit. Why tell a sexuality they don't exist? What does the LGBTQ+ community get out of saying a bisexual person is no longer gay because they're dating someone of the opposite sex?

More inequality than what the community already has to deal with.

I don't know why anyone would want to make the fight for equality, the fight for love, even more difficult. There need to be less bisexuals being told they're just straight because they're a woman dating a man. There need to be less pansexuals being told they're actually just homosexual because they're a man dating a man. There need to be less asexuals being told they're just faking or haven't met the right person yet because they're completely uninterested in sex.

There needs to be more acceptance, more love, from and for everyone in the alphabet soup of the LGBTQ+ community.