That’s pretty standard for the development of a living language. Words, phrases and idioms spread by being used, heard and imitated, and people learn their meaning by hearing the context in which they are used and, if necessary, by interrogating the users. (In other words, if they feel “uninitiated” and in need of initiation, they take responsiblity for initiating themselves by making appropriate enquiries.)
There aren’t any information campaigns associated with the launch of a new word.
Lettuce, guacamole, bacon, and tomato quiche.
No, lobster. 
I, too remember when it was just “gay” stuff, and that was understood to include lesbians as well, but because there was lots of lesbian-specific stuff (like the music festivals), and the occasional male-only safe sex workshop, people began saying lesbian-gay, for things that included both. Then bisexual people wanted to be included, so it became LGB in the early 1990s, or maybe 1989. LGBT came around long after I had left college.
Q is new to me too, but I don’t go to so many rallies and things anymore.
As far as I can tell, at least around where I am “queer”, in addition to being a more specific term for genderqueer people, is the new LGBT umbrella term. You hear people refer to “the queer community” very often and it’s pretty widely understood to mean anyone under the LGBTQIAA and so on umbrella.
To be clear, the Q in LGBTQ refers to a specific type of identity, but it also has a broader use.
Wow, it’s even more complicated than I realized! Now I’m kinda feeling left out. In the name of inclusiveness couldn’t we have an H in there for heterosexual? Then we’d all be under the umbrella!
Seriously it would be nice to see the day when we didn’t need to constantly demarcate ourselves and set ourselves apart from others. And yes, I realize that day is a long way off yet.
Do you really not see a difference between including people with non-standard sexual attraction that often includes same-sex attraction but isn’t exclusively same-sex in the same group as ‘gay and lesbian’, and including the group that is considered normal in society and which doesn’t face laws attempting to destroy them or force them to conform to a standard of attraction that doesn’t work for them?
I would hope we never see a day where everyone is the same and no one sets themselves apart, but fortunately there’s no way that will happen without a very scary totalitarian state. It’s good that people are different and have different methods of expression, what I hope to stop is persecuting people for not fitting a particular norm, or worse for not fitting an idealized version of a norm that never actually existed in the first place.
It’s important to remember, here, that “identity politics” didn’t come about because some portions of society wanted to separate themselves from the mainstream - it came about because some portions of society were being rejected - often violently - by the mainstream. Every letter in that - admittedly sort of ridiculous - acronym salad represents another group that has been victimized by mainstream society. The “demarcation” you want to see go away exists as a survival method. Stop trying to kill us, and we won’t feel the need to gather together for protection.
From something I wrote when I was 23:
[QUOTE=AHunter3]
Considering all the damage done and the limitations encountered by the use of labels and categories, why not simply think of oneself as a person and leave it at that?
Indeed, it is irresponsible labeling that gives rise to the mess so many people face, but it is actually very difficult to confront that mess, let alone seek allies who’ve been there and understand, if you can’t differentiate at all; while an all-encompassing love for the entirety of people is beautiful and freeing, making ideas and behaviors the enemy rather than classes of people, it doesn’t greatly help, when trying to understand and be understood, to describe yourself as a person and only as a person.
[/quote]
Do we as yet actually have a rigid definition of “Queer?”
I have a penis but I like rom-coms. Does that make me genderqueer?
Facebook has 58 options to self-identify one’s gender.
Who exactly is creating all these labels and failing to see humanity as unique individuals?
“Rigid” might not be the best word, except under certain circumstances.
Queer is a bit of a catch-all. You can use longer alphabet soups if you want to be more specific. Queer and gay are not the same. To use an example from popular media, Nomi Marks from Sense8 is MTF transgender, who also has a girlfriend. Depending on how she feels about it, Q would probably describe her rather complicated body/transition status/attraction/sexual identity better than just saying she’s straddling T and G.
Yeah, it can get confusing. Consider: a MtF Transgender. She may be attracted to males or females or both. And she may or may not have had sex reassignment surgery or hasn’t had SRS yet.