An Open Letter to All Of My Non-Straight Friends

You know I love you. I really, really, do. And I have been supportive. Haven't I?

I can't imagine how tough it would be growing up gay in a small town, or a red state. And I know when you've felt you've had to repress your feelings and your "self" for so many years, sometimes when you first come out of the closet, you want to talk about your sex life in detail that's perhaps a little more graphic than I feel comfortable with, but I'm a friend, and I understand, and I listen.

So I've been there. And I'll still be there in the future.

But here's the thing. The acronyms. They're getting out of hand.

Okay, so we started out with Gay, and so every so often I'd see something like GWM. And I know that, okay, so Lesbian is, technically, a different word, so I was with you on the GL or LG when you wanted to make sure that everyone knew that a certain group was open to all genders.

I got it. Okay.

And then, all right, so someone decided that bisexuality wasn't exactly being gay, and just to make sure that everyone knew how you felt about it, LGB was born, and although I was starting to think that, yes, maybe this is getting a bit long, I went with it.

And then a very sensitive person decided that nobody should inadvertently hurt the feelings of a transgender person, and they really should have their own letter. LGBT. Okaaaay, I was starting to worry that this might be getting out of hand.

So now I've received a fundraising letter from the Hetrick-Martin Institute. Supporting whom? Youth who identify as....

LGBTQ

WTF?

Seriously. WTF? Q? What is with the Q? Yeah, I know, I looked it up. But come on.

Where is this going to end?