People nowadays are so caught up in the idea that the LGBT community is about inclusivity and that all labels are valid that they forget this isn’t what the community is about. Sometimes it’s good to draw lines in the sand. Bi lesbians don’t exist. Like, you’re either bi or a lesbian but both of those things exclude each other (but that doesn’t mean that there can’t be or aren’t overlapping experiences). Pansexual is just another word for bisexual except now you’re being biphobic (and transphobic and homophobic) about it. Gen Z kids having a dozen microlabels does nothing except make this about individualism instead of a community, it negates the fact that everyone has differing experiences but that we can still unite under one banner.
The validity of something isn’t a measurement worth considering when it comes to being LGBT because at this point anyone can be ~valid~ and that’s where the conversation shuts down. If a label is “valid” then any criticism leveraged towards it will be met with a wall of “but x is valid so this doesn’t matter,” no matter how rightful, no matter how well-meant. It isn’t about whether or not x identity is valid or whether y should/should not be included, because that’s not what the community is about. Questions like those only benefit corporations during pride month to start selling more to us using increasingly specific flags, it’s only to divide the community and hyperfocuses on individuality above anything else.
It is part of a bigger problem here, the commodification of identity and the self because of late-stage capitalism goes hand in hand with distancing yourself from others and any similarity & community you could share with them. The complexities of your own experiences with relation to gender and sexuality will always be unique to you. A lesbian who grew up closeted in a deeply homophobic household in London will have different experiences and views than an openly proud lesbian in Hong Kong. This doesn’t mean either of them are any less of a lesbian, nor does it mean that either of them need to label themselves with some hyperspecific microlabel that “better fits” their circumstances and the way they experience attraction etc.
The LGBT community is a community for a reason, it is about how we are connected through our struggles, through our shared marginalization, through our understanding of, solidarity for, each other. Making it out to be about “inclusivity” when that’s more a buzzword along the lines of “diversity” for suit-clad executives to circlejerk over, or about how “valid” any given identity is, is to lose sight of that. It is to derail the conversation about community and sameness to talk about individuality.
