今日吃瓜

On this International Women鈥檚 Day (IWD) we explore the important reason LGBT begins with the 鈥楲.鈥�

Although International Women鈥檚 Day has been weaponised into a capitalist scam that platforms girlboss CEOs and offers women pink cupcakes instead of equal pay, it is still an opportunity to amplify the contributions of women throughout Australian queer history.

Even now, it鈥檚 not uncommon to see people using the acronym 鈥淕LBT鈥�, instead of the more popular LGBT. Not only does this move reek of misogyny, but it erases the contributions of queer women in the fight for gay liberation.

When delving into the history of the LGBT acronym, you encounter conflicting reasons as to why lesbians were placed at the beginning, but the most commonly heard story has to do with the contribution of queer women, specifically lesbians, to the care and support of those with HIV/AIDS.

The AIDS crisis of the 1980s forever changed the way gay men and lesbians related to each other. Lesbians coordinated frequent blood drives, donating their own blood in a time when gay men were forbidden to.

They navigated the healthcare system, volunteering in hospitals when patients were abandoned by their families and, to some extent, the medical system itself. In the early days, so little was known about the way AIDS spread, and many people were fearful of getting too close to those who were sick in case they contracted the disease themselves.

For some patients, the only people who weren’t scared to touch them, to hug them in their final days, were the women in the queer community.

Placing 鈥渓esbian鈥� at the beginning of the acronym that summarises our collective was a way of acknowledging the important roles that community had played, a way of honouring their power.

When people choose to use GLBT, they鈥檙e erasing a legacy that has been overlooked and undervalued for too long.