The Oracle: Words Have Meaning
As someone who spends a substantial amount of time fighting for LGBT equality, I am often surprised at how little attention gets paid to word choice. Editors, bloggers, and the like, sometimes choose words that really grate on me. It is a concern because words have meaning.
For example, the most insidious word that is constantly used in our movement is tolerance. Being the academic that I am, I thought perhaps I am not clear on the usage of the word. So, I looked it up. The first definition of tolerance is a capacity to endure pain or hardship. The second definition is sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices that differ from or conflict with one’s own. The third definition is the allowable deviation from the standard. Is this what the LGBT community at large wants from America, tolerance? I do not want to be tolerated.
I do not want people to feel that they are enduring pain by giving the LGBT community equal rights. I certainly do not want their sympathy or indulgence of me. Of course, I do not think that our community is a deviation from any standard; we just are. So, why do I constantly see arguments in the LGBT press extolling tolerance of us from the larger community or suggestions that we should be tolerated? What I want, and I hope the community at large wants, is acceptance. That’s right, approval and respect of my sexual orientation.
Acceptance says a lot more about what we want to achieve as a movement. We want our enemies and detractors to accept that we exist, accept that our sexual orientation is not changeable, accept that we have loving relationships and accept that we too are normal. So, can we agree to take the word tolerance out of the LGBT collective equal rights vocabulary?
