As an interesting bit of commentary in its own right, that's the first time I've ever seen the 'T' given such prominence in that abbreviation--it's usually LGBT (or LGBTQ if Queer or Questioning is included.)
What I see most often is GLBT (and LGBT), but I try to randomize the order when I write it myself (when I remember, anyhow) to try to challenge (conscious or unconscious) orderings of prominence of the subgroups, and (conscious or unconscious) perception of the order of the letters as conveying any sort of relative importance of the subgroups in the first place.
(I know not everybody perceives a hierarchy there, and yay for the people who don't; but I'm also aware that a bunch of people speak and act as though they do see such a hierarchy, whether they intend that or not.)
Since I just scramble the letters myself instead of firing up a program with a random number generator in it, I'm probably not actually all that random in practice, but that's the idea behind the practice anyhow.
With the conventional ordering, it becomes (I suspect) a little too easy for non-T* readers to think of the 'T' as an afterthought (though it is, of course, a bit tricky to definitively distinguish cause from effect when one suspects a feedback loop is involved). Writing it differently each time is my attempt to rectify that without relegating some other letter to always being last either. I just hope that the result remains intelligible to folks accustomed to one particular ordering -- and that people who do notice as you did, reconsider (if only for a moment) assumptions about where T* issues fit into the BGTL rights movement and overall community.
As a side effect I figure maybe it'll have an effect on "bi invisibility" as well (something I still hear bi friends complain about from time to time). My one fear is that a reader will fail to recognize it as a mere reordering and think it's a mysterious, unrelated abbreviation they don't know.
(no subject)
Is it 'being sneaky' if you plan to get caught?
(I know not everybody perceives a hierarchy there, and yay for the people who don't; but I'm also aware that a bunch of people speak and act as though they do see such a hierarchy, whether they intend that or not.)
Since I just scramble the letters myself instead of firing up a program with a random number generator in it, I'm probably not actually all that random in practice, but that's the idea behind the practice anyhow.
With the conventional ordering, it becomes (I suspect) a little too easy for non-T* readers to think of the 'T' as an afterthought (though it is, of course, a bit tricky to definitively distinguish cause from effect when one suspects a feedback loop is involved). Writing it differently each time is my attempt to rectify that without relegating some other letter to always being last either. I just hope that the result remains intelligible to folks accustomed to one particular ordering -- and that people who do notice as you did, reconsider (if only for a moment) assumptions about where T* issues fit into the BGTL rights movement and overall community.
As a side effect I figure maybe it'll have an effect on "bi invisibility" as well (something I still hear bi friends complain about from time to time). My one fear is that a reader will fail to recognize it as a mere reordering and think it's a mysterious, unrelated abbreviation they don't know.