While The Western Journal will stick with “LGBT” (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) as the acronym of preference when describing the gay community, the otherwise accepted acronym is quite a bit longer.
The currently used acronym consists of “LGBTQIA+,” which adds “queer,” “intersex,” and “asexual” to the original four.
The plus-symbol is meant to be a catch-all for any other rare sexual preferences, but some have opted to add a letter for each preference anyways.
Here’s one such longer acronym, courtesy of Loyola University Maryland’s contribution to the discourse: “LGBTQQIP2SA: any combination of letters attempting to represent all the identities in the queer community, this near-exhaustive one (but not exhaustive) represents lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, pansexual, two-spirited, and asexual.”
And that acronym may just get a tad longer, thanks to researchers from Seattle University, according to the New York Post.
In a study published in “Archives of Sexual Behavior” in April, researchers posited that there may be a new form of sexuality: symbiosexuality.
“A recent review of cultural and academic discourse presented evidence that some people experience attraction to two (or more) people in a preexisting relationship,” the study noted.
In other words, a “symbiosexual” is infatuated with preexisting couples.
The paper argued that the topic of symbiosexuality was “understudied.”
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While this sort of sounds like the recent phenomena of “throuples” (a three-person, “committed” relationship), the study was quick to note that the “polyamorous community” generally did not accept or recognize symbiosexuals.
And that may be because symbiosexuals “are not oriented toward individuals.”
“What if a person’s primary attractions are not oriented toward individuals?” the study posited.
The study ultimately “found strong evidence of symbiosexual attraction” in its case studies, which means it may only be a matter of time before another letter is added to the LGBT acronym.
Symbiosexuality, while perhaps not the exact term used, has already seeped into Hollywood.
Sexually-charged 2024 sports/romance movie “Challengers,” starring Zendaya, was effectively a movie about symbiosexuality under the guise of a tennis movie.
More so, this “symbiosexuality” comes at a time where the world is a bit raw about LGBT issues following the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
The already polarizing event became a cultural battleground for transgenderism in sports due to the complicated case of Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who has a rare medical condition that gives her the physical attributes of a man, minus the genitalia.
