QTPOC
Queer and trans people of color: a term for being both at once.
QTPOC stands for queer and trans people of color. It names people who are LGBTQ+ and not white, and it exists because being both at once is its own experience rather than two separate ones added together.
The idea underneath it is intersectionality, a term coined in the late 1980s by the academic and civil rights advocate Kimberlé Crenshaw for the way different forms of discrimination overlap. You do not meet racism on one day and [[transphobia|transphobia]] on another. They often arrive together, and it is not always possible to tell which one is doing the work.
There are longer versions. QTIPOC adds intersex; the UK organisation GIRES describes it as common in activist circles. QTBIPOC names Black and Indigenous people explicitly, following the BIPOC convention, which aims to recognise specific histories instead of folding everyone into one category.
These words were made by the communities they describe, and they are used most in activist and community settings. Not everyone they could describe uses them, and nobody is obliged to.
On an event listing, QTPOC usually marks a space meant specifically for queer and trans people of color. If you are looking for places like that, where to meet trans people offline is a start.
QTPOC is not a diversity tag on a white default
It is sometimes read as a box to tick, as if queer and trans people of color were a variation on a standard, white queer experience. The term exists to question that standard, not to sit politely inside it.
It is also not one identity with one history. People with very different backgrounds sit under it, which is exactly why some prefer longer forms that name groups explicitly.
Saying it well
Say this
- I am QTPOC.
- A QTPOC space.
- Queer, trans, and a person of color.
- QTBIPOC, if you want the fuller version.
Not this
- Using QTPOC about white queer people
- Asking which part of you matters more
- Treating it as a niche interest
- So you must be the expert on racism
Questions people actually ask
What does QTPOC stand for?
Queer and trans people of color.
What is the difference between QTPOC and QTBIPOC?
QTBIPOC adds Black and Indigenous explicitly, following the BIPOC convention of naming specific histories rather than grouping everyone together.
What does QTIPOC mean?
Queer, trans and intersex people of color. It adds intersex people to the term.
Why not just say LGBTQ+?
Because the combination of race, gender and sexuality creates experiences that neither word covers on its own. That overlap is what intersectionality describes.