Most people are likely to be familiar with the acronym LGBT and know what the individual letters represent in terms of protected characteristics that are covered under the Equality Act 2010. It is equally likely that most people will have seen that acronym expand to a point where they are unsure what each individual letter represents, as highlighted in a BBC article in 2015 when the acronym had expanded to LGBTQQIAAP.  How many of those ten letters can you identify?    

Acronym

L - lesbian: a woman who is attracted to other women

G - gay: a man who is attracted to other men or broadly people who identify as homosexual

B - bisexual: a person who is attracted to both men and women

T - transgender: a person whose gender identity is different from the sex the doctor put down on their birth certificate

Q - queer: originally used as a hate term, some people want to reclaim the word, while others find it offensive. It can be a political statement, suggest that someone doesn't want to identify with "binaries" (e.g. male v female, homosexual v heterosexual) or that they don't want to label themselves only by their sexual activity

Q - questioning: a person who is still exploring their sexuality or gender identity

I - intersex: a person whose body is not definitively male or female. This may be because they have chromosomes which are not XX or XY or because their genitals or reproductive organs are not considered "standard"

A - allies: a person who identifies as heterosexual but supports people in the LGBTQQIAAP community

A - asexual: a person who is not attracted in a sexual way to people of any gender

P - pansexual: a person whose sexual attraction is not based on gender and may themselves be fluid when it comes to gender or sexual identity

We have opted for LGBTQ+ as our acronym to define the SCA Equality Group activities, but how did we come to that decision (and have we got it right)? From looking at different organisations in this sector, it is immediately clear that there is no consensus acronym, although LGBT is common to all. We therefore reached out to a number of individuals and national organisations to ask why they identified with a particular acronym. The consensus was that ‘Q’ represents a broad gender-neutral descriptor that can be interpreted as ‘queer’ or ‘questioning’, and that ‘+’ demonstrates a recognition of further identities beyond LGBT.

We believe that ‘LGBTQ+’ demonstrates our commitment of inclusivity for that community in paddlesport while at the same time not being too over-complicated for the entire community. We hope that we have struck a good balance and welcome feedback from SCA members, if you have comments or suggestions, email us at equality@canoescotland.org