Foucault is spot on in saying in this day of age we are obsessed with sex and its labels. Sadly I don't see much liberation in the HBQT movement. All those labels are just shackles on a heavy chain of controlling discourse.
"Controlling discourse" seems to be the new "states rights" argument for a form of social conservatism which held no objections whatsoever to purging public discourse of any positive reference to behaviour they believed to be immoral when they held the whip hand...
Nothing spells celebration like the approval of the State and the Law does
Labels have their downsides, but the upside is an enormous communication advantage over other species, one that brought us the ability to foster life and evolve other species with us. In effect we are now _better, more nuanced labelers_ than we were in the past, which is really the goal--eliminating labels stunts our ability to identify and solve problems, so using them better is the only way to go.
TLDR: "We label too much" itself is a label for a problem; even though it necessarily leaves out nuance, that's also the very factor that gives a labeler more leverage. To move up and away from that problem, we will need to find new labels that get us better traction in that area. The amazing thing is that there are so many billions of ways of labeling a problem, each with respective advantages/disadvantages.
Biphobia, which is just a modern label for a collection of attitudes that predate our modern concepts of sexuality, would still be a thing if no one called themselves "gay" or "bi" (or pan), just as same-sex attracted people got lynched for going against some people's beliefs long before there were words for their attractions.
Labels aren't the problem. Dogmatic adherence to narrow concepts of gender and sexuality is the problem. It's helpful to identify the way I do so people who also identify that way can find me and compare experiences with me.
Labels for gender and sexuality are best treated as a way of finding others like yourself to increase self-knowledge and protect yourself against people who want to hurt you because of the feelings those labels represent.
I disagree with you on there being no liberation coming from the movement. I only agree insofar as the label obsession is mainstream.
Can you elaborate on what you mean by controlling discourse?
Now, real change is precursed by a change in attitude and a change in attitude can be in turn precursed by a change in terminology.
But a change in terminology does not always lead to a change in attitude and a change in attitude does not always lead to real change.
It's confusing cause and effect.
The time is ripe, enough people are reasonable to get an actual change happening on this front in the lifetimes of almost everybody that it really matters to. Force will get you nowhere at all.
Taking Rosa Parks as a nice example: she wasn't complaining about the language used to determine her place in the bus, she took what was rightfully hers and stood by it.
People who actually use them for themselves experience them as guideposts to finding out what's going on inside by seeking out other people's experiences. To us, the labels are no different from "nerd" or "musician." I would still find them useful even without a vast social and political movement hell-bent on making my world as sad and empty as their own.
Identity labels are fundamentally about making space to explore. "Musician" leads to all kinds of places, like grungehead, or rondo fanatic, or furry rave DJ. Why people get so up in arms about identity labels when it comes to gender and sexuality is beyond me, and I've already written too much here to start speculating.