When your library is in the midst of a pandemic and safety is your first priority, it’s easy to let other things fall to the bottom of the pile. Pre-pandemic, I had a lot of teens in the library who identify outside of the generic gender check box. Now, we rarely see any teens in the library at all, and my GSA group is temporarily on hold. But as librarians, we need to keep in mind that any of our patrons at the library, whether obvious or not, might identify as something other than male or female.
If pronouns and LGBTQ terminology are not at the top of your staff meeting agenda, then maybe as the Youth Sevices or Teen Librarian, you can make it part of your job to keep up with the terminology. Have a paper handy to give to a coworker, or create a flyer/pamphlet to give to staff or post on a staff board with some of the important highlights. Staff sensitivity training is a great way to get staff thinking about how their words and actions can have a big impact.
Here are a few good websites/resources you can bookmark, or maybe even add to your library’s website/teen page so your staff can access the information when they have a chance. Keep in mind that terminology changes frequently, so it’s a good idea to check in and see if there are any updates from time to time!
Human Rights Campaign – Glossary of LGBTQ+ Terms
This resource is a great slide presentation that could be adapted for staff training.
New York Times article: The ABCs of L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+
I do not profess to be an expert AT ALL, and I mess up a lot. As a straight woman, assigned female at birth, I don’t have much personal experience, but it is something that I feel strongly about. If anyone has any other great websites or resources, please share in the comments!
Teen Services Underground 
5 responses to “Staying Up To Date with Your ABCs (of LGBTQ+)”
Thank you for sharing! Great resources.
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This is a great starter for LGBTQ+ terminology. I do have one critique though. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, we respect allyship and its role. However, A does not stand for ally, and allies are not a part of the community, though they have a role outside of the community. I would recommend an info graphic that does not include ally as one of the letters, because the letter are meant to represent those within the community. By placing Ally in there, it implies that an ally is in the community and deserves a voice over the actual community, which is counterintuitive to the very purpose of the LGBTQ+ community. I hope you understand this is nothing against you, just a significant discrepancy to keep in mind.
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Hi Kelly,
Thank you so much for this info. It makes perfect sense why Ally should not be included in there. I always worry about bringing up topics like this when I am not a member of the community itself, and I am so glad that you mentioned this so I know going forward. This is a great topic for our teen group when/if we are able to have in-person library programs again! If you have any resources – or even a better infographic! – please let me know!
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I’m disappointed that Bisexual falls into the false binary narrative by using the term “opposite” in its description! As a non-binary bisexual person, I generally describe “bi” as “their same and different genders” instead of opposite. I also agree with above who mentioned that “ally” is not considered a part of the queer community, as well as throwing out there that not all intersex people identify as part of the queer community (especially if their gender is binary) and that “transexual” could be eliminated from this graph altogether!
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Definitely not a good graph! I’d remove it, but it’s actually generating some good conversation. Thanks for your input! Obviously, we need a new infographic – or maybe an infographic is simply too restricting to cover everything. Does anyone know of a graph that currently covers everything?
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