What to know
- Leah Gazan, an MP with the New Democratic Party, used the acronym MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+ during a press conference on budget cuts for Indigenous women’s organizations.
- A clip of her remarks was shared on social media platform X and amassed nearly 40 million views, gaining additional attention after being reposted by Elon Musk.
- The acronym stands for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, and Asexual+, and has appeared in Canadian government language since around 2021, building on earlier use of MMIWG2S in National Inquiry documents.
- Online reactions were largely critical, with some users arguing the wording merges identity groups with victims of violence and becomes overly long, while others said expanding acronyms may dilute focus on violence against Indigenous women and girls.
MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+, an acronym said at a recent conference while addressing funding for Indigenous services, has garnered reaction online for being, what some are calling, lengthy and unnecessary.
New Democratic Party Winnipeg Centre MP Leah Gazan, who is also a member of the Wood Mountain Lakota Nation (Treaty 4), was one of multiple speakers who addressed reporters at Wednesday’s conference on a lack of sustained funding for Indigenous women’s organizations.
While speaking on the podium, Gazan explained her shock behind about $7 billion in budget cuts from both Indigenous Services Canada and Crown Indigenous Relations.
That’s when she used the 16 character-long acronym.
“They provided zero dollars to deal with the ongoing genocide of MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+,” Gazan said.
This clip was posted on X (formerly Twitter) following the press conference, garnering almost 40,000,000 views.
Now Toronto reached out to Gazan but did not receive a response by publication.
What does this acronym mean?
MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+ stands for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, and Asexual+.
It is often used by the Canadian government in official settings, dating back to 2021, to address violence against Indigenous people, more specifically the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls across the country.
The acronym MMIWG2S can be found in documents by the National Inquiry, dating back to at least 2019.
Two-spirited is included in both contexts, as it stems from Indigenous culture and beliefs and also relates to gender; an Indigenous person who is a part of the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community and who doesn’t identify as male or female.
MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+ is used in a different context by the Canadian government, compared to 2SLGBTQQIA+, an acronym representing sexual and gender diverse communities, that is constantly updating.
Online reaction
The clip of Gazan has seen global reaction on social media, even catching the attention of Tesla CEO and owner of X Elon Musk, causing an increase in views after he reposted it.
Read More
Many of those responding said the acronym merged identity categories with victims of violence.
The original poster of the clip, Samantha Smith, wrote on X that despite being a brown woman, as well as a member of the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community, she doesn’t agree with the wording.
“‘Indigenous’ isn’t a sexual or gender identity,” she stated in part. “They took a distinct issue and bolted it onto the pre-existing LGBT framework, like some backwards inclusivity trophy that has no positive practical effect.”
She added that violence Indigenous communities face is important to highlight and that is all the more reason to not lump the two together.
“That’s what makes it all the more vital to bring awareness and attention to the issue SPECIFICALLY. Not to dilute the original focus and reduce overall visibility for the Indigenous cause,” she wrote. “…It’s not meaningful inclusion.”
Others agreed with Smith.
“I think it’s super important for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women to have attention drawn towards them, but why are they lumped with LGBT?” an X user wrote. “Those people are victims not a sexuality or identity, I can’t be the only one that thinks it’s weird to lump them together, right?”
“I wonder how the gay and lesbian people feel about their entire identity being lumped together with literally every perceived victim group that people can think of,” another X user said.
A few users said the acronym, especially as it updates, does the opposite of inclusion.
“People create these acronyms to increasingly isolate real society,” one X user said.
“This is 15 characters and a symbol. Literally using over half the entire length of the alphabet,” another X user added. “It’s just so far beyond ridiculous.”
