Sometimes—fairly often, in fact, and increasingly so—I feel I’ve been living under a rock.[1] I still don’t have a TikTok account and I don’t really get its purpose as a platform. From what I gather, it has something to do with really short videos and, as these posts exemplify, brevity isn’t my thing. I also haven’t hopped on the Wordle bandwagon. Haven’t played it, if “playing” is even the right verb, haven’t Googled it, haven’t had a single chat about it. Honestly, I don’t want to Wordle…again, if that’s the right verb. (If it’s not, surely it will become a verb.)
This morning, while searching the internet for the umpteenth time to find a potential agent who will LOVE my manuscript, LOVE me, take me as a client and land me a six-figure publishing deal (seven would be okay, too), I came across a term I hadn’t seen before. The agent’s blurb said she was seeking works by traditionally underrepresented authors, including “POC, LGBTQ+/QUILTBAG, neurodiverse, body diverse, and disabled creators.” Lots packed into that statement, lots that makes me excited about publishing striving to be more inclusive. I see many agents make similar (though less comprehensive) statements, whether they’re made genuinely or just because that’s what agents are supposed to do now. The cynic within me wonders how many diverse authors they have and, if none, then will they be content once they get one? Whew! Tokenism at last!
Quite frankly, I’m at the point where I’ll be somebody’s token, even if the “gay” token isn’t as shiny and new as other categories under the diversity umbrella.
Which brings me back to my Term of the Day: QUILTBAG.
Huh?
My first image was of a writer walking to a café with a laptop under one arm and a handsewn, oversized purse hauled about in the opposite hand, knitting needles and colorful balls of yarn poking out. I hadn’t realized crafty folk were underrepresented in the literary world. A quick Google revealed there is a potential sub-genre under crime fiction for “knitting needle murders.” It’s a thing. In just ninety seconds online, I came across these books titles: Death by Knitting; Murder, She Knit; Murder Tightly Knit; Needled to Death.
I would like to suggest to this agent that crafty, “quilty” authors may not be underrepresented. In fact, I’m hoping the crafty, “quilty” publishing trend is on the wane. I’m developing a fear of quilters. Out of an abundance of caution, I’m never visiting Great Aunt Leonora again. I’ll miss her plate of digestive biscuits, but I’m big on safety first. Besides, I don’t need another handmade tea cozy.
It turns out that’s not what QUILTBAG means. Sometimes I forget that all-caps doesn’t just mean people are shouting or trying to tweet like Trump. (For the record, both these undertakings REALLY OFFEND me.)
QUILTBAG is another queer acronym which stands for Queer/Questioning Undecided Intersex Lesbian Transgender/Transsexual Bisexual Asexual Gay/Genderqueer. We can thank someone named Sadie Lee for this term.
Any acronym that purports to represent a broad range of gender and sexual identities will fall short, particularly when these identities continue to evolve now that societies and queer communities are becoming more accepting of a fluidity of sexual orientations and classifications beyond a gender binary. The omission that stands out most for me is Two-Spirit identity. True, Two-Spirit also isn’t expressly noted in LGBT or LGBTQ, but those acronyms use the G and the Q respectively to represent a catchall for a broader community. As acronyms get longer to expressly represent more people, the perceived omissions come off more as slights which offend. What about me? QUILTBAG2 anyone?
I suppose I could get behind QUILTBAG if it took off. To be sure, it rolls off the tongue easier than LGBT or LGBTQ or—deep breath—LGBTQIA2S+. I appreciate that. News anchors, reporters, well-intentioned queer allies and the like must surely hope QUILTBAG sticks.
But it hasn’t. It doesn’t even make an appearance under the “Variants” subheading of Wikipedia’s LGBT entry despite the fact a quick Google shows the acronym going back to 2012 at least. Maybe I’m not the only queer who has concerns about knitting needle nightmares. Maybe there are butch femmes and leather daddies who see the quilting image as something stereotypically feminine. Maybe we’re all just labeled out. I appreciate that, too.
[1] Such an odd expression, isn’t it? Being as I’m SIGNIFICANTLY larger than a potato bug or an earthworm, how is that even possible? Plus, I don’t think I could tolerate the dank, musty environment.
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