The 16-characters in MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+ stand for “Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, and Asexual,” with the plus-sign encompassing any other gender-identity not covered by the nearly paragraph-long initialism. The gigantically long acronym is used by the Canadian government to highlight rates of violence against Indigenous women and girls.
The MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+ fiasco isn’t the first time Canada has gone viral for making up a mouthful of an acronym to represent the gay and queer community.
In 2017, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario went viral for a flyer advertising a “LGGBDTTTIQQAAPP” inclusiveness training session.
“LGGBDTTTIQQAAPP” stands for “lesbian, gay, genderqueer, bisexual, demisexual, transgender, transsexual, twospirit, intersex, queer, questioning, asexual, allies, pansexual, polyamorous.”