While The Western Journal will stick with “LGBT” (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) as the acronym of preference when describing the gay community, the otherwise accepted acronym is quite a bit longer.
The currently used acronym consists of “LGBTQIA+,” which adds “queer,” “intersex,” and “asexual” to the original four.
The plus-symbol is meant to be a catch-all for any other rare sexual preferences, but some have opted to add a letter for each preference anyways.
Here’s one such longer acronym, courtesy of Loyola University Maryland’s contribution to the discourse: “LGBTQQIP2SA: any combination of letters attempting to represent all the identities in the queer community, this near-exhaustive one (but not exhaustive) represents lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, pansexual, two-spirited, and asexual.”
And that acronym may just get a tad longer, thanks to researchers from Seattle University, according to the New York Post.
In a study published in “Archives of Sexual Behavior” in April, researchers posited that there may be a new form of sexuality: symbiosexuality.
“A recent review of cultural and academic discourse presented evidence that some people experience attraction to two (or more) people in a preexisting relationship,” the study noted.
In other words, a “symbiosexual” is infatuated with preexisting couples.
The paper argued that the topic of symbiosexuality was “understudied.”
Do you know the full acronym for the LGBT community?
While this sort of sounds like the recent phenomena of “throuples” (a three-person, “committed” relationship), the study was quick to note that the “polyamorous community” generally did not accept or recognize symbiosexuals.
And that may be because symbiosexuals “are not oriented toward individuals.”
“What if a person’s primary attractions are not oriented toward individuals?” the study posited.
The study ultimately “found strong evidence of symbiosexual attraction” in its case studies, which means it may only be a matter of time before another letter is added to the LGBT acronym.
Symbiosexuality, while perhaps not the exact term used, has already seeped into Hollywood.
Sexually-charged 2024 sports/romance movie “Challengers,” starring Zendaya, was effectively a movie about symbiosexuality under the guise of a tennis movie.
More so, this “symbiosexuality” comes at a time where the world is a bit raw about LGBT issues following the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
The already polarizing event became a cultural battleground for transgenderism in sports due to the complicated case of Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who has a rare medical condition that gives her the physical attributes of a man, minus the genitalia.
