A leading university in the U.S. is facing a firestorm of criticism over how it defined the word lesbian in an online glossary of LGBTQ terms.
Per the glossary that was on the Johns Hopkins University website until Tuesday, lesbian is described as a “non-man attracted to non-men.”
Critics are accusing the renowned institution of misogyny and attempting to “erase” women in its apparent effort to be inclusive of non-binary and transgender people and those assigned female at birth but who do not identify as a woman.
The university has temporarily removed the entire glossary from its website while it works “to determine the origin and context” of the contentious terminology.
Criticism over language that is sensitive to gender diversity, especially when it comes to recognizing transgender people as the gender they identify with, has not only sparked debates on social media but has led to some U.S. states passing laws defining genders and restricting personal pronouns.
But experts say what was likely a well-intentioned effort to be inclusive by people at Johns Hopkins University may have only served to create more problems.
“Their hearts may be in the right place,” said Helen Kennedy, executive director of Egale Canada, a human rights organization for two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex people. But she worries the problematic wording will further fuel hateful and harmful narratives about gender-diverse people.
Defining a controversy
The LGBTQ glossary that was posted on John Hopkins University’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion webpage listed dozens of terms that relate to sexual orientation and gender identity.
In a statement emailed to CBC News, Johns Hopkins University said the glossary is meant to serve as “an introduction to the range of identities and terms” but is not meant to be a “definitive” explanation for various terms, adding the Office of Diversity and Inclusion’s leadership team had not reviewed it.
Based on a CBC News search of Internet Archive screenshots of the glossary page, the updated definition of the word lesbian was made in early October 2022.
As of October 6, 2022, the word lesbian was described on the page as a “woman who is emotionally, romantically, sexually, affectionately, or relationally attracted to other women, or someone who identifies as part of the lesbian community.”
The revision, with “non-man” language, appeared in a screenshot taken a week later, noting “this updated definition includes non-binary people who may also identify with the label.”
The change appears to have gone largely unnoticed until this week, when it sparked outrage in some corners of the social media and in tabloid media.
Kennedy said whoever rewrote the Johns Hopkins glossary would have been wise to carry out community consultations, to understand the nuances of the term before making the now controversial change.
She explained Egale Canada updates terms “all the time as language changes and communities evolve.”
She said organization currently defines lesbian as “a person who identifies as either woman or non-binary, and who experiences attraction to the same or similar genders,” noting that sexual orientation is distinct from gender identity and transgender and non-binary people can be gay, lesbian, bisexual, straight or whatever orientation best suits them.
Double-standards definitions
Kennedy said another potential “lightning rod” with the Johns Hopkins glossary is the definition for gay man, which doesn’t include any similar “non-woman” language.
Instead, it’s defined as “a man who is emotionally, romantically, sexually, affectionately, or relationally attracted to other men, or who identifies as a member of the gay community.”
It’s a double standard that Marusya Bociurkiw, a professor of media theory at Toronto Metropolitan University, took note of.
“[That] would not sit well with folks who identify as lesbian, in the same way that we no longer use the term non-white to refer to BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, people of colour] folks because that references the dominant paradigm,” said Bociurkiw, who researches lesbian and feminist communications history.
She said lesbian communities are very conscious of terminology because they have historically “reinvented language,” referencing variant terms like “womyn” or “wombyn” which were adopted by some feminist and lesbian groups to remove the suffixes -man and -men and the implication of their identity being inherently reliant on men.
But the term lesbian, she said, should already be considered inclusive of transgender women and people who identify as women and that “most lesbians” recognize that trans women are among the most marginalized people in society.
“Not using the term woman or not trying to nuance it doesn’t doesn’t really help the situation,” she said.
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Changing the terms
Author J.K. Rowling, a prominent critic of transgender issues and topics related to the recognition of gender diversity, was among those criticizing Johns Hopkins University this week over the use of the term “non-man.”
There have been newer terms adopted to reflect gender diversity, including “people who menstruate” in place of “women,” because not all women menstruate and some trans men do, and “birthing people,” meant to reflect that transgender and non-binary people who have uteruses are able to have children.
But some consider the use of such terminology as a part of an attempt to erase women or, in some cases, to erase lesbians, rather than an effort to be inclusive of gender diverse people
Man: no definition needed. <br>Non-man (formerly known as woman): <br>a being definable only by reference to the male. An absence, a vacuum where there’s no man-ness. <a href=”https://t.co/cpSaSR2Vfg”>pic.twitter.com/cpSaSR2Vfg</a>
—@jk_rowling
Bociurkiw understands those concerns and said there does need to be a degree of vigilance about how we redefine terms and develop new language surrounding gender identity and sexual orientation, because words like women and lesbian are connected to histories and movements.
At the same time, Egale Canada’s Kennedy said she is conscious of efforts to “erase” transgender and gender diverse people by limiting inclusive language in legislation and education.
“It’s very worrisome and I think we need to push back against it because it’s doing a disservice,” she said. “Certainly to some of the most marginalized groups in our society,” she said.
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