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Detangling the Alphabet Soup

  • Writer: Amanda Riddell
    Amanda Riddell
  • Mar 28, 2024
  • 1 min read

A quick lesson in New Zealand English from someone that used to edit it for RNZ. So, obviously, the LGBTQIA+ thing is easy to mock. In New Zealand, we have a totally different approach to this, which has emerged out of the fact that NZ didn't really 'buy' the QIA part initially. We've got a rich tradition of eccentrics, but here they become cult leaders rather than shamans. 🤣 The technically correct referent - as used by the pollies - is rainbow communities, or sexual and gender minorities (that's Julia Serano's term). This refers to lesbian/gay communities (old generation), 'the rainbow community' (young generation), the trans community, gender minorities communities, the non-binary community, and the intersex and asexual communities. All sexual and gender minorities, essentially; whether kink or furry is included in this referent... I would, but that's not the general mood, which ostracises those orientations. Ok Chloe includes them, though. 👍 - I'd rather refer to the non-binary community as the bisexuals, as that's what I think that they are: bi people that like to 'queer gender' [air quotes]. - Queer is still a dirty word around here, though the teenagers use it like Americans.

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1 Comment

Amanda Riddell
Amanda Riddell
Mar 28, 2024

Usually people say 'the rainbow community' but 'rainbow' is also acceptable, particularly in lists (ie the rainbow, disabled, and neurodivergent communities). It's rare to see this, though: 'the rainbows went and vandalised that derelict building with graffiti' I think it'll catch on in the future, though - it's only corporate-type people that use the alphabet soup in Aotearoa.

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