{"id":84096,"date":"2026-06-11T11:10:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T09:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/?p=84096"},"modified":"2026-06-11T14:56:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T12:56:06","slug":"pride-memory-decolonisation-rethinking-lgbtq-acronym-global-south","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/story\/84096\/pride-memory-decolonisation-rethinking-lgbtq-acronym-global-south\/","title":{"rendered":"Pride, memory and decolonisation: Rethinking the LGBTQ+ acronym from the Global South"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Rusly
Rusly Cachina is a Member of Migrantia, Equality Technician, Head of Afro-Queer Migrations, Coordinator of Voz Migrantia Lavapi\u00e9s, Coordinator of AMIGRAS, Activist, and Trans Expert Peer.
\u00a9 Rusly Cachina<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

This story is also available at Greenpeace Spain, in Spanish<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Every year, specifically in June, Pride Month fills social media, streets and institutional spaces with flags, messages, speeches and celebrations. Important dates are commemorated, celebrating advances in LGBTQ+ rights and making visible identities that have long been denied.<\/p>\n\n

But this global image doesn’t always feel universal<\/a>. From the Global South \u2013 especially from African and diasporic contexts \u2013 many of us experience this month with a complex mix of emotions: recognition, yes, but also distance, tension, and questions that don’t always find a place or space in dominant narratives.<\/p>\n\n

What does the acronym LGBTQ+ stand for, and why is it not neutral?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

The acronym LGBTQ+ (a condensed version of LGBTQIA2S+<\/a>) is an umbrella term used to describe a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. It stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer with the + representing other diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. This acronym has been fundamental in building political visibility and articulating common struggles. However, it is also necessary to recognise that it is a historical construct situated in specific Western contexts<\/a>, shaped by languages, categories, and ways of understanding gender and sexuality that are not universal.<\/p>\n\n

When these categories are presented as the only possible framework for naming diversity, they risk rendering invisible other forms of existence, identities that do not fit within them, and our relationships and connections. Because naming is not just describing: it is also ordering the world.<\/p>\n\n

How colonial language, legal, religious and administrative systems erase collective memory<\/h2>\n
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