Abstract
This essay considers how deployments of the acronym LGBT often obscure and flatten the specificity of the terms the letters reference. Also of concern here is how the T might be the more fundamental letter, as reactions to LGBT identity are indexed in gender transgression, to which the T refers. I argue for holding the trouble of the acronym in the T and that the trans underlies how LGBT, as a marker of subjectivity or violence, becomes legible. To carry this out, the essay makes a parallel to how LGBT functions similarly to people of color as the terms obscure the fundamentality of the trans and the black, respectively; clarifies the distinction between queer and trans, and subsequently trans and transgender; and demonstrates how transphobic readings are integral to homophobic responses.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 191-206 |
Number of pages | 16 |
Journal | Hypatia |
Volume | 36 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 1 2021 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Gender Studies
- Philosophy