So, last week I posed a question on Twitter and it went something like this: “FreesQOTD: If a friend of yours told you they were LGBT, how would you respond? The question got so many responses that I had to turn it into a post.

Interestingly enough there were a lot of positive answers, some negative, and even some great intriguing debates were had, which you’ll see below.  But the question sparked a bigger question from quite a few of my followers. The question was, what is LGBT?

I’m not shocked that everyone doesn’t know what the acronym stands for, but I thought more people knew. So today I shall explain what exactly LGBT stands for.

LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. In use since the 1990s, the term LGBT is an adaptation of the initialism “LGB“, which itself started replacing the phrase gay community beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s which many within the community in question felt did not accurately represent all those to whom it referred.

Lesbian – a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females.

Gay – a word (a noun or an adjective) that primarily refers to a homosexual person. The term was originally used to refer to feelings of being “carefree”, and “happy.”

Bisexual – Being bisexual means having the potential to be attracted to people of their own gender or another gender.

Transgendered – an umbrella term for persons whose gender identity, gender expression, or behavior does not conform to that typically associated with the sex to which they were assigned at birth. Gender identity refers to a person’s internal sense of being male, female, or something else; gender expression refers to the way a person communicates gender identity to others through behavior, clothing, hairstyles, voice, or body characteristics.

The most interesting conversations came about because of the question I posed, hopefully something was learned about sensitivity and imposing your will on others. What do you think about this exchange between two #teamfree members on Twitter?

@ishelbysexdgood @missfree that’s what’s wrong now is most LBGT are so sensitive because they know their life is wrong but sin blinds us

— Napolean (@Buckhead_CEO) July 30, 2012

@ishelbysexdgood @missfree yes we all sin but as a christian you can’t encourage sin or embrace it you love the sinner but you hate the sin

— Napolean (@Buckhead_CEO) July 30, 2012

@ishelbysexdgood @missfree it was not judgmental I said love them enough to tell them the truth U embrace them in their struggle not the sin

— Napolean (@Buckhead_CEO) July 30, 2012

@buckhead_ceo @missfree I’m sure you’ve sinned plenty of times before, so my question still stands, WHO ARE YOU to JUDGE and FORCE?

— Sheldon Jarod (@iShelbysEXdGood) July 30, 2012

Although it got ugly a few times, important views were shared.

- Free

*Definitions courtesy of Wikipedia.org.