The term LatinX is a word making its way more into the American lexicon as one that seeks to identify the Hispanic population and all Latino’s and Latina’s with one label.
This term was created to neutralize gendered pronouns in the Spanish language. The Spanish language has male and female terms. It’s how our language is structured. The term LatinX was created to include gay, cis-gendered , non-binary and transgender people into the Spanish language. It has since been taken as a “label” for the whole Hispanic community as a group irrespective if you identify as the people for whom it was initially created.
LatinX is definitely a label that has arisen from the queer community. Those are the people that were feeling the need for a term that would stop breaking the world into gender binary groups. Unfortunately, for those who “support” this label, the Spanish language is not structured to integrate this term as we have male and female gendered pronouns. Many describe this term as an “Anglicism” of the Spanish language, as well. As white higher education elitist professors have also been involved in pushing this term through colleges and universities and has subsequently been picked up by media outlets. This leads to the parroting of the term and further feeds it into the American lexicon.
In Spanish, it is traditional to use the masculine form of nouns and pronouns when referring to both males and females. Advocates of gender-neutral language modification consider this to be sexist and favor new ways of writing and speaking. One such way is to replace gender-specific word endings -o and -a by an -x, which represents the syllable “ex” such as in LatinX as opposed to Latino and Latina. It is more inclusive in “gender queer” friendly environments.
If the LatinX term was created to be inclusive of “non-heterosexual” populations, and that label is applied to those who are Latino or Latina “heterosexuals”, it’s offensive to millions of us who do not identify as such. As the term was created specifically for the non-heterosexual population. If one does not identify as one of these groups (gay, lesbian, transgendered, cis-gender non-binary), and you overlay this term (LatinX) over those who do not identify as such you offend millions of Latino’s and Latina’s. As the genesis of this term was created for these sub groups of the US population.
I personally don’t care what someone wants to call themselves, or how they live their lives. But I do take issue with the LatinX label being applied to those who do not fit the profile of this sub-group of people for whom it was created. If this term is used to identify or label you and you disagree with that label, stop the use of this term to describe you and correct those who use it. As for me, I’m Latino or Hispanic. You can keep your “X”.