Know
Your Acronyms
FYI, LGBT is not an acronym and neither is FYI.
They're initialisms. A combination of letters is
not considered an acronym unless they form an easily
pronounceable word. NATO, for example, is an acronym
while FBI is an initialism. (Though if the BBC can
be pronounced
"beeb", which it is in England, then the FBI can
be pronounced "feeb". Ammaright?) I believe
this means that all acronyms can be an initialism
but not
necessarily vice
versa. BWDIK.
Without doubt, "ellgeebeetee" is a mouthful (Quiet,
you!) and I hear there's even talk of adding extra
letters like "I"
and "Q", for "intersex" and "queer". No doubt other
spectrums on the sexual scale will want to join the
band someday, like hermaphrodites or, I dunno, Filipino
she-males, so it can only get worse. Right about
now we could probably use a better solution.
There are those of a conservative mind-set who believe
that the optimal description should be something
like "Non-Het", for "non-heterosexual",
but that's like calling normal-sized people "Non-Fat".
Besides, is there really a "normal" when it comes
to
biological life? Do we really even need labels like
this except just to chose up sides?
I
think Popeye
had the right idea when he said "I
am what I am" because we are all what we
are.
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Technical note: I finally discovered
a suitable fix for the Search feature here on ye
olde Pencil. You can now sate your historical
comic curiosity with but a few clicks of the
keyboard and the touch of a button.
=Lefty=
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