From a very early age, Tami Albin knew she was somehow different from other girls. She was drawn to the small shelf of gay and lesbian books at her Kansas library. Librarians wanted to be helpful and would ask her if she needed help, but Albin, now 38 and a librarian in her own right at Kansas University’s Anschutz Library, insisted on finding books on her own.
Now, Albin is making sure Kansans who believe they might be or who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex or queer (GLBTIQ) know they aren’t misfits. She’s proving it by interviewing people in Kansas’ GLBTIQ community for an oral history collection called “Under the Rainbow: Oral Histories of GLBTIQ People in Kansas.”
The project, funded by a two-year new faculty research grant, is seven months in, and Albin already has crisscrossed the state to interview 20 people, ranging in age from 25 to 80. And she’s got people lined up, waiting to tell their stories.
Growing acronym
What the heck is GLBTIQ?
I see the article says gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex or queer, but how does transgender differ from intersex. Are we talking a true medical diagnosis of intersex made in infancy for children with ambiguious genetalia? gonadal dysgenesis?
I thought the Q was for questioning. How does queer differ from gay?
I am so confused. There should be some type of controlling authority. Perhpas the ISO?
An acronyms and initialisms directory perhaps?
I thought I was the only one confused by that. I too thought the Q was for questioning. That initialism just keeps getting longer to the point of where I am having serious trouble understanding what it might mean in concrete terms.
The subject heading for such in LC’s file is “Sexual minorities.” I see a whole slew of 450 tags in the authority record that link from initialisms like GLBTIQ back to “Sexual minorities” as the preferred term. If I am reading the 005 tag correctly, the last time that record was touched was August 2006. A 450 tag for that newer initialism might be appropriate for somebody at a SACO library to add, I guess.
If anybody out there feels moved to make a proposal from somewhere other than a SACO library, the requisite tools can be found at http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/saco/.
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Stephen Kellat, Host, LISTen