Encompassing both the “LGBTQ(IA,lmnop)+ community” – i.e., those who are hopefully happy with their sexuality, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc. – and the “QRS community” – i.e., those with a QRS-complex, i.e., those with a heartbeat, i.e., “those of us yet living” – the “LGBTQRS community” ought to suffice as a term to describe all of those of us happy to live in the diverse splendor of sex and help others to do the same.
A half-way academic debate whispers across the land, How many letters should we be using to express that community referred to by the initialisms GLB, LGB, LGBT, LGBTQ, LGBTQIA, LGBTTQQIAAP, QUILTBAG? The question, so far as I can tell is How should we strike a balance between including as many as we can into that community (/those communities) by explicit acknowledgement and/or implicit branding (including but not limited to folks identifying as asexual, bisexual, curious, gay, genderqueer, intersex, lesbian, other, pansexual, polyamorous, queer, questioning, trans, transgender, transexual, transvestite, two-spirit, unsure; ABCGGILOPPQQTTTTTU at first pass) and brevity/efficacy of communication (ABCGGILOPPQQTTTTTU is, if nothing else, a mouthful).
I offer here the term “LGBTQRS” as one striking an optimal balance between inclusion of the many in the letters of the few.
From a spoken voice, the letters L, G, B, T, and Q in a row have a good cadence, keep all the rhyming letters together, and pay historical tribute to the founders of the community and its accompanying movements. Lesbians, gays, bisexuals, trans, and those questioning Sex In All Its Forms have each in their own way and with the help of others created a space for these liberties to exist. (The latter Q, especially to younger audiences, can equally represent “queer” folk who themselves also contribute(d) significantly to the community and its rights.)
Recognizing that the facets of Sex In All Its Forms are myriad and those that wish to support the freedoms of others to dis/engage in Sex In All Its Forms are multiplied daily (🤞), from there I hope it is safe to presume in the long run we hope to include all of “those of us yet living” (we cannot, alas, convince the dead of their wrongs against us). A serviceable-enough criterion for “those of us yet living” includes a heartbeat, generally including P-, Q,- R-, S-, and T-waves in a typical clinical-grade electrocardiogram. Lasting approximately 50 to 100 milliseconds, the most obvious pattern in this electrical display of the heart’s activity is the “QRS complex”. Thus, to recognize “those of us yet living”, the “QRS community” ought not to be too off the mark as a description of those still alive.
Portmanteau the two, paying deference to the history of those who fought for these rights, and we have the “LGBTQRS community”, a community I am proud to support.