(Reuters photo: Kimberly White)

Adding ‘kink’ renders it meaningless.

According to an article in The Gay UK, some people want to use “LGBTQQICAPF2K+” instead of “LGBT” — adding a “K” to represent “kink.”

“There is now a K to add to the ever-growing LGBT+ acronym – and apparently, it stands for ‘kink,’” states the piece, which defines all of the letters in “LGBTQQICAPF2K+” in the following way:


L – lesbian

G – gay

B – bisexual


T – transgender

Q – queer

Q – questioning


I – intersex

C – curious

A – asexual

A – agender

A – ally

P – pansexual

P – polysexual

F – friends and family

2 – two-spirit

K – kink

Unsurprisingly, the publication also reports that many members of the LGBT community are not exactly happy with the suggested addition of “kink.” A quick search on Twitter reveals the same thing:

There’s now a K for Kink in the LGBT+ acronym. Really? Is kinkiness now viewed as a sexual orientation? Clearly I haven’t kept up with the community I’m meant to be in… — Vonny Leclerc (@vonny_bravo) January 28, 2018

Honestly, I’d have to agree with anyone who thinks this is one of the dumbest things of all time. As the piece in The Gay UK itself notes, the entire purpose of the acronym is “to encompass any community that defines itself as anything but heterosexual or cisgender” — but the only reason that “kink” would need to be added would be to encompass people who are heterosexual and/or cisgender. After all, any people in the “kink” community who are not heterosexual and/or cisgender would have already been included in the community under the other letters.

It’s great to be “inclusive” and all, but the thing about words and phrases is that we’re actually supposed to use different ones to describe different stuff. That’s not up for debate, that’s just how language works; it’s how we communicate.


If you’re into some weird “kink” or whatever, that’s fine, but it’s is absolutely not the same thing as being gay — and you can’t just tack on your letter and make it the same. Having a “kink” doesn’t make you part of the LGBT community, it makes you someone who has a kink. That’s why there’s a separate word for it, because it’s a separate thing.

One specific description can’t be used to describe anything and everything, because then it ceases to be a specific description. If you look at that LGBTQQICAPF2K+ acronym, it’s clear that it would be pretty damn hard to find someone whom it does not include — which means that it destroys the purpose of the acronym altogether.