LGBTQ

PluralLGBTQs

1. 1
   adjectiveinitialism

   Initialism of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer.

   The company updated its hiring practices to better support LGBTQ employees.

   Local libraries expanded their LGBTQ book collections this year.

   Note

   The adjective usually sits before a noun: LGBTQ issues, LGBTQ relationships, LGBTQ couples. It does not compare, so nothing is more or most LGBTQ. The final letter is the one to watch. Here Q stands for queer, while the "questioning" reading uses the same five letters. A writer who means one or the other does well to spell it out once.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   Any individual who identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer.

   The mentorship program pairs each LGBTQ with an experienced volunteer.

   Many LGBTQs attended the community forum on housing rights.

   Note

   Where the adjective describes, this noun names the person, and it counts like any ordinary noun. The plural takes a plain s with no apostrophe. That form appears in the title of Alexander Dhoest, Lukasz Szulc and Bart Eeckhout's LGBTQs, Media and Culture in Europe (2016). It also turns up in running prose, as in "remove all LGBTQs from the military."

3. 3
   adjectiveinitialism

   Initialism of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning.

   The youth center offers LGBTQ peer mentoring throughout the school year.

   Their LGBTQ outreach team visited several rural communities.

   Note

   The Q does different work here: it stands for questioning, meaning people still uncertain about their sexual orientation. David E. Newton's LGBT Youth Issues Today (2014) stops to explain that letter, because the acronym alone cannot show which reading is meant. Nothing in the spelling separates this sense from the "queer" expansion, so context, or an explanation on first use, has to carry the difference.

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