You cannot claim to oppose homophobia while using the acronym LGBTQIA+ or one of its countless alphanumeric variations. Why? Because homophobia is not limited to open hostility toward homosexuals. It also takes the form of prejudice and stereotypes based on sexual orientation. Using “LGBTQIA+” to refer to gay men and lesbians rests on precisely such a prejudice: the assumption that, simply because someone is homosexual, that person automatically belongs to a broader identity bloc and subscribes to the claims and theories associated with it, including gender theory, gender identity, and queer activism, which seeks to deconstruct sex, sexual orientation, and ultimately homosexuality itself. That is exactly the kind of generalization we should reject. Being homosexual tells you absolutely nothing about my political beliefs, my understanding of sex, or whether I subscribe to any particular ideological movement. When institutions lump homosexuality, transgender identity, and queer activism together under a single label, they are attributing beliefs to gay men and lesbians based solely on their sexual orientation. That is prejudice against homosexuals. And the problem becomes even more obvious when those same institutions then invoke “the LGBTQIA+ community” to claim to speak on our behalf and suggest that we, as homosexual people, endorse political demands and ideological positions that have nothing whatsoever to do with being homosexual. Fighting homophobia also means stopping the assumption that you know what homosexual people think simply because they are homosexual. #PeopleAreNotLetters #StopForcedTeaming #NotInMyName