I wasn’t going to write a blog about this at first, but my facebook blew up with the conversation. I should give a small amount of background. I write lesbian-fiction, for the most part. I’m co-writing a novel with a gender-shifting alien, and I have experimented with writing slash fiction. Queer sexuality does not SCARE me at all. In fact, I’m even part of that group.

I “label” myself as bisexual. Throughout the years, it’s never been a question to me, never an issue, just simply part of who I am. But that’s the catch. It’s only PART of who I am, it is not who I am at all. I have resisted joining LGBT communities and groups on college campuses and outside schools because they seem to want those labels to take over lives completely. Well, that’s not going to happen with me. I’m a daughter, a woman, a minister, a lover, a friend, a listener, a geek, a writer, a random individual, but most of all I am a PERSON.

Recently, my friend asked me a question about a new label that is floating around. There are so many names for the community: LGBT, GLBT, LGBTQI, QUILTBAG, etc. The newest one I’ve seen is LGBTQqi2. Say what? Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender/sexual, Queer, Questioning, Intersexed, and Two-Spirited.

The two-spirited is the one that I haven’t seen before. Briefly, it is a name for Native Americans (hereby referred to as Indians, since I grew up near the reservations and that is their preference), who feel they have both gender-identities.

This sparked a debate on facebook. I wrote about the new identity and how I can’t stand that more labels are being added to the alphabet soup in order to be all-inclusive. There’s already a category for that; it’s called HUMANITY! Simply put, humanity, thus far, is the only all-inclusive group that humans can be associated with. (We’re excluding aliens from outer space thus far, seeing as how they have yet to show face). A person is a person, no matter how small–Dr. Seuss had it right. Go figure.

By adding more and more categories, they are striving for something completely unattainable: an all-inclusive group. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against the LGBT community or the work that they do; I just think that they are very naive in understanding as to what exactly they are doing. By fighting for rights of those only in their category, they are excluding others–which goes against the very nature of why that group was founded. A group that was excluded, creates a group and excludes other peoples, who need another group. DO YOU NOT SEE THE CYCLE!?

It’s not enough to fight for the rights of only one category. We need to fight for the rights of all humanity to be completely equal. Equality can’t come from just one or two groups, it needs to come from looking at every one and for every one–for all of humanity, not just certain parts of it. That doesn’t mean we can’t have parts or have labels–it just means that those labels are defined, understood in their definition, and are not expected to be the definition of a person.

People can argue with me day and night, but I will not be changing my mind. The work that the LGBT community does is fantastic; it’s great and wonderful. But it is not all-inclusive, and it does not fight for the rights of everyone. As a bisexual, I think I get this more than a lot of people. I get shit from both sides of the track in the world (the LGBT community and the straight community). I break the binary that the LGBT community set up to oppose heteronormatives. I break the chain.

So, why can’t we break the chain of working toward rights for only certain people? Fight for every one. Understand the small amount of work you do within the greater context of humanity and the world. Fighting for smaller groups and the rights of those smaller groups is great, but know that you’re not fighting for everyone.

All right. =P Rant over. Whew!