...when one isn't sure of his or her orientation? That seems like a weird one - if you don't know your orientation, keep trying until you find out which of the other 4 letters suits you best(or "H" for Hetero). There shouldn't be an "unknown" category. That's not an orientation at all.
Non Religious! Most of us could have guessed that. A new survey reconfirmed it. I recall a few pastors claiming that god himself will come down from heaven and judge all the LGBT sinners as stated in the book of revelation.
Well, we've had LGBT for long long time now, where's that Judgement Day coming god?? Oh that's right, you never wrote the book of revelation, it was a bunch of delusional homophobic men.
Personally, I'm far more accepting of girls being bi or lesbian than dudes being bi or gay but I also don't think that either of them need some holy book of nonsense telling them they need to burn in hell for it.
Apparently, some church denominations are accepting of LGBT and acknowledge their marriages.... but then didn't the bible state something about sodomy? This is why religion is stupid. They make up a bunch of BS, shove that BS down everyone's throat for centuries on end claiming it's the truth, but then backtrack or bend the rules, misinterpret, and even go so far as to make up some more BS to blend in to the former BS.
http://news.yahoo.com/religion-unimportant-most-lgbt-americans-132241382.htm
...when one isn't sure of his or her orientation? That seems like a weird one - if you don't know your orientation, keep trying until you find out which of the other 4 letters suits you best(or "H" for Hetero). There shouldn't be an "unknown" category. That's not an orientation at all.
...anyone want to be labelled "Q." And how is Q different from L or G?
Queer is also enough of an umbrella term that it allows for gender and sexuality flexibility that other identity 'letters' don't. It's not an anachronism; it's been back in use since the mid nineties. Women's Studies departments these days often offer courses in Queer Theory, if not an entire certificate. While I understand it used to be a slur for gay men, it's now proudly used by (mostly female-assigned) people in a politicized fashion, much like Chicana instead of Latina- it denotes socio-political awareness.
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..."Queer" now on TER, claiming Harlowe Dahl says it's "proudly used."
Sorry, but I don't seem to keep up on these things any better than you do, so while I will take Harlowe's word for it. I will stick with the term "gay' for the time being. I am sure at some point that gay will be considered insulting or demeaning by the next generation of the PC Police, just like "oriental" and "black" are now.
BTW Chicana was in use well before there was anything political assigned to the word, it was generally used to describe people of Mexican heritage either born or raised in the US, I am old and I remember growing up with the term, and growing up with Chicanos all the way back to the 60's. The main thing that determines a Chicano from other Latinos is it only applies to Mexican Americans. not to Mexicans living in Mexico, nor to hispanic immigrants from other countries. Actually if you were to go to Mexico and call someone a Chicano they would most likely be very insulted, akin to going to Ghana and calling a local an African American.
Although the term queer meaning homosexual is still considered highly offensive when used by non-homosexuals, it is often used by homosexuals themselves as a positive term, as in queer politics, queer cinema
The Q-word
adjective
1. differing from the normal or usual in a way regarded as odd or strange
2. suspicious, dubious, or shady
3. faint, giddy, or queasy
4. (informal, taboo) homosexual
5. (informal) odd or unbalanced mentally; eccentric or slightly mad
6. (slang) worthless or counterfeit
noun
7.(informal, taboo) a homosexual, usually a male
verb (transitive)
(informal)
8. to spoil or thwart (esp in the phrase queer someone's pitch)
9. to put in a difficult or dangerous position