Why Lea DeLaria wants to do away with ‘LGBT’

Lea DeLaria has had it with the use of LGBT and other initialism to refer to anyone who is non-heterosexual or non-cisgender.

‘Part of me believes that this inclusivity of calling us the LGBTQQTY-whatever-LMNOP tends to stress our differences,’ the Orange is the New Black star tells PrideSource.

‘And that’s why I refuse to do it. I say queer. Queer is everybody.

‘This is the biggest issue we have in the queer community to date and will continue to be the biggest issue until we learn to accept our differences, and that’s the issue.’

The actress and stand-up comic says those differences include ‘constantly dealing with the more conservative queers and the more radical queers like myself.’

In 2014 she refused to perform at Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival which does not admit transgender women.

‘I said in the statement when I pulled out of MichFest: “How fucked up is it when I’m the voice of reason?” You’ve got to be kidding me that you guys can’t see this. When Lea DeLaria and (author and activist) Larry Kramer are the voices of reasons, people are fucked. Cause we’re the two biggest bitches on the planet! We’re little brats. We scream and yell until people listen to us, that’s who we are.’

DeLaria makes these points when she speaks at universities ‘because apparently I’m a role model.

‘It just makes me laugh. Like, honey, if I’m a role model, queers are in a lot of fucking trouble. I speak about it a lot, but when we come together and don’t infight we get a lot done. That’s how we defeated DOMA, that’s how we defeated Prop 8, that’s why the SCOTUS decision happened.’