Have you ever felt like people are passing over you? Like there’s no representation for people like you anywhere? Or have you ever felt like people won’t even recognize part of your identity?
If you haven’t, you should know that it feels awful.
You should also know that people feel this way every single day.
It’s not hard to help some of these people feel a bit more included and recognized in every day by adding one simple word to the end of LGBT.
Plus.
That is how most people that fall outside of the four mentioned in LGBT when the community is brought up in conversation. This includes people that fall under pansexual, asexual, demisexual, greysexual, polyamorous, polysexual, and many other sexualities that are not heterosexual or heteromantic. The plus represents those that are not as well known.
Feeling unrepresented or even completely ignored is hurtful to those that want just to be seen. It doesn’t even mean accepting them, but just recognizing that they exist. Recognition that someone exists is amazing when some people do not even have their labels known broadly.
You can’t imagine what it means to people that aren’t broadly accepted or even broadly known. Recognition is amazing.
There are people out there who have their romantic orientation and their sexual orientation that don’t match. There are people that have orientations you may have never heard of. There are people that you might not think they would be that, but they are.
You might not even believe some of these orientations exist, but someone’s orientation isn’t for you to decide.
By remembering the plus sign in LGBT+, you are giving many people a sign that people will recognize them and remember them. One word can make people very happy in a way you wouldn’t understand. It doesn’t take a lot of work for you to remember it, so just make someone’s day.
The community is bigger than you can imagine because people are always finding terms, and they all belong to the community. Gender and attraction come in a variety of ways, and they all deserve to get recognition.
I have seen people cry over the fact that someone remembered to include them or know their identity, so you never know how much it means until you actually find someone that it means to people. This is a great way to be an ally to the community in a simple way is by accepting everyone in the first place and then recognizing them by adding one word to your vocabulary.
The first step in leading people to acceptance is recognition. Then you can lead to representation, and finally, to acceptance. Don’t fall into stereotypes that the community is limited or that only certain people can fall into the community. Only you can figure out what your attraction or your gender is, so never try to define someone else.
Add the word plus to the end of LGBT instead. Make someone’s day with a simple act of inclusion.