Heterosexism: the Heterosexual Privilege issue

[Monk06]

8. Adrian Piper used to say in situations where she overheard bigoted remarks, "Your racism is not

my problem". The idea was to make the bigot responsible for what they said and the hurt it causes.

That was thirty years ago. Fast forward and GLBT has expanded to LGBT, LGBTQ, LGBTQA, TBLG, each with its own set of needs and sensitivities.

I have no problem making minor adjustments to greetings and speech in general to avoid offending even straight acting gay men and lesbians. However I am at a loss as to how I am expected to anticipate or intuit the special needs and sensibilities of Allies, Questioning and Asexual people.

And does simple human interaction have to be constrained by having to wonder whether someone is unsure of their sexuality or resents all categories because they think all sexuality is OK?

Should we have to agree with this normative inflation and say, even Gays and Lesbians are privileging their status by referring to themselves as Gay or Lesbian?

At a certain point the politicization of language reduces communication to absurdity. Sentences lose meaning and are reduced to a series sounds signifying nothing.