In an interview with Michigan gay
weekly PrideSource, out comedian-actress Lea DeLaria said that she
refuses to use the term “LGBTQ.”
DeLaria, who plays a lesbian inmate
nicknamed Big Boo on the Netflix prison drama
Orange is the New Black, said that LGBTQ, which refers
to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people, stresses
differences in the community.
“Part of me believes that this
inclusivity of calling us the LGBTQQTY-whatever-LMNOP tends to stress
our differences,” DeLaria
said.
“And that's why I refuse to do it. I
say queer. Queer is everybody.”
“This is the biggest issue we have in
the queer community to date and it will continue to be the biggest
issue until we learn to accept our differences, and that's the
issue,” she added.
Those differences, according to
DeLaria, include “constantly dealing with the more conservative
queers and the more radical queers like myself.”
She also laughed at being labeled a
role model: “Like, honey, if I'm a role model, queers are in a lot
of fucking trouble.”