Before Reading:
Please note this is a long "MyTake", as well as my first but you can easily skip few headings if not interested in reading it all, as for the main goal from this is to list the definitions and terminology of LGBTQ and not the movement of the community.
"The word community in this post is not to related to the movement. It only symbolizes the group of people who happen to have a sexual orientation that is different than heterosexual."
I am heterosexual and been confusing many things related to LGBTQ leading me to unintentionally have a bad behavior towards them. To be able to respect people from that community it was my personal duty to learn about it more.
After seeing many questions and posts regarding the confusion people are getting in G@G regarding LGBTQ, I thought it would be a decent act from me to share with all of you what my long fingers helped me find over the Internet.
I sincerely hope you take the time to have a quick look and participate with your own opinions.
Please note that I don't like labels either, but it feels weird when someone comes out and mention a term I don't know. Instead of saying labels, let's just use the word terms.
What Does LGBTQ+ Mean?
LGBTQ+ is an acronym for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer/Questioning, and others. It refers to a population of people united by having gender identities or sexual orientations that differ from the heterosexual and cisgender majority.
Other names/terms/labels for this population:
- GSM (Gender and Sexuality Minorities)
- GSD (Gender and Sexuality Diverse)
- extended acronym LGBTQQIAP2S (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, Pansexual, and Two-Spirit)
- Queer Community or Rainbow Community (used to describe LGBTQ2+ people)
Some people experience their sexual orientation and/or gender identity as fluid, while others as stable and enduring over time. Both are normal. You are not a bad representative of the LGBTQ+ community for having a fluid identity. There are more variations than there are shades in the rainbow!
LGBTQ is more commonly used as a term for the community just because it is more user friendly. No matter what are the labels and names you heard before, hear today or will hear in the future, always remember to be respectful and use the terms they want to.
LGBTQ is a more user friendly term used for the community
Basic Terminology:
Gender Identity:
Your intuitive sense of who you are, in terms of gender. It can incorporate how you want other people to see you, how you relate to others, and how you see yourself.
Sexual Orientation:
The pattern your sexual attraction takes based on gender. In other words, sexual orientation is about the gender of the people you tend to find sexually attractive.
Romantic Orientation:
A person’s romantic orientation has to do with who they tend to form romantic bonds with, based on gender. For many people, romantic and sexual orientations overlap considerably. But for some people, their sexual orientation and their romantic orientation are not equivalent. These people may use several words to describe their orientation instead of only one. Ex: bi-romantic asexual, or homo-romantic bisexual.
Coming Out:
Letting someone know what your sexual orientation or gender identity is. Coming out can be a continuous process as you encounter new people and gain new understanding of your own identity. People tend to assume that you are heterosexual and cisgender unless you tell them otherwise. This is why LGBTQ+ people tend to "come out" and heterosexual and/or cisgender people do not.
You don't have to be part of the LGBT, nor a friend, but you don't have to be ignorant either. They are human too.
Fluid Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity:
This means that their identities might shift over time.
Stable Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity:
Many other people experience their sexual orientation and/or gender identity as stable and enduring over time. Sexuality and gender are complicated.
Fluid or Stable, you are not a bad representative of the LGBTQ+ community
Some LGBTQ Symbols:
Before getting to the definitions, I wanted to share few symbols I have found over the Internet. The picture above describes what each symbol represents.
Definitions:
Lesbian:
A female homosexual who experiences romantic love or sexual attraction to other females. Typically, a woman who is romantically and sexually attracted to other women. Some trans* people who were AFAB (Assigned Female At Birth) who are attracted to women also identify as lesbians due to their connection to that community and/or due to the lack of terminology for "non-binary gendered person who is attracted to women".
Gay:
A term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. Gay is often used to describe homosexual males but lesbians may also be referred to as gay.
Bisexual:
Romantic attraction, sexual attraction or sexual behavior toward both males and females, or romantic or sexual attraction to people of any sex or gender identity; this latter aspect is sometimes termed pansexuality.
Transgender:
An umbrella term for people whose gender identity differs from what is typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth. It is sometimes abbreviated to trans.
Transsexual:
Experience a gender identity inconsistent or not culturally associated with the sex they were assigned at birth.
Trans*
An umbrella term derived from a contraction of "transgender" or "transsexual". The asterisk is a "wildcard" that stands for the multitude of ways that trans* people identify. The prefix "trans" can mean beyond, across, between, through, transcending, or changing. Many trans* people have a gender identity that is different from the one they were assigned at birth. Some people identify as trans* if their gender expression is different than what is expected for their gender.
Two-Spirit:
A modern umbrella term used by some indigenous North Americans to describe gender-variant individuals in their communities, specifically people within indigenous communities who are seen as having both male and female spirits within them. A term for LGBTQ members of the Native American community, first coined in 1990 by a Native American group in Winnipeg. The term references a tradition common to several tribes, where some individuals possessed and manifested a balance of both feminine and masculine energies, making them inherently sacred people. (Derived from BAAITS Bay Area American Indian Two Spirits)
Queer:
An umbrella term for sexual and gender minorities that are not heterosexual or cisgender. Queer was originally used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires but, beginning in the late-1980s, queer scholars and activists began to reclaim the word.
Questioning:
The questioning of one’s gender, sexual identity, sexual orientation, or all three is a process of exploration by people who may be unsure, still exploring, and concerned about applying a social label to themselves for various reasons.
Intersex:
A variation in sex characteristics including chromosomes, gonads, or genitals that do not allow an individual to be distinctly identified as male or female. A general term used for a variety of conditions in which a person is born with reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male.
Asexual:
Asexual (or non sexuality) is the lack of sexual attraction to anyone, or low or absent interest in sexual activity. It may be considered the lack of a sexual orientation, or one of the variations thereof, alongside heterosexuality, homosexuality, and bisexuality. A person who does not experience sexual attraction under most circumstances. An asexual person may or may not experience romantic attraction.
Ally:
A person who considers themselves a friend to the LGBTQ+ community.
Allies are people who recognize the unearned privilege they receive from society’s patterns of injustice and take responsibility for changing these patterns. Allies include men who work to end sexism, white people who work to end racism, heterosexual people who work to end heterosexism, able-bodied people who work to end ableism, and so on.” – Anne Bishop
If you have the curiosity to know more about Allies, I recommend you check out How To Be An Ally by Wash Silk
Pansexual:
Pansexuality, or Omnisexuality, is sexual attraction, romantic love, or emotional attraction toward people of any sex or gender identity. Pansexual people may refer to themselves as gender-blind, asserting that gender and sex are insignificant or irrelevant in determining whether they will be sexually attracted to others. Pansexuality is often confused with Bisexuality. People who identify as pansexual define it in multiple ways. Some people identify as pansexual because they see “bisexual” as not including non-binary trans* people. Other pansexual people explain it as a sexual attraction to people irrespective of gender or sex.
Agender:
Also called genderless, gender free, non-gendered, or un gendered people are those who identify as having no gender or being without any gender identity. This category includes a very broad range of identities which do not conform to traditional gender norms.
Gender Queer:
An umbrella term for gender identities that are not exclusively masculine or feminine identities which are thus outside of the gender binary and cisnormativity. Any person with a "queer" gender identity or gender expression. The act of transgressing gender norms. A specific non-binary gender.
Bigender:
A gender identity where the person moves between feminine and masculine gender identities and behaviors, possibly depending on context. Some bi gender individuals express two distinct “female” and “male” personas, feminine and masculine respectively; others find that they identify as two genders simultaneously.
Gender Variant:
Gender variant or gender nonconformity, is behavior or gender expression by an individual that does not match masculine and feminine gender norms. People who exhibit gender variance may be called gender variant, gender non-conforming, gender diverse or gender atypical, and may be transgender, or otherwise variant in their gender expression. Some intersex people may also exhibit gender variance.
Pangender:
Those who feel they identify as all genders. The term has a great deal of overlap with gender queer. Because of its all-encompassing nature, presentation and pronoun usage varies between different people who identify as pangender.
Biromantic:
Being romantically attracted to two genders (or all genders).
Homoromatic:
Being romantically attracted to people of your own gender.
Heteroromantic:
Being romantically attracted to people of a gender other than your own.
Panromantic:
Being romantically attracted to all genders.
Aromantic:
Not experiencing romantic attraction.
Not all women are Lesbian or Bisexual !!!
Pansexuality is often confused with Bisexuality
Pride Flags:
My Thoughts:
Following many takes, questions, opinions, thoughts, ideas and replies posted here in G@G and what I have been facing in real life, I have decided to post a take that simply explains the meaning of LGBTQ so people who are lost the way I was would know the terminology.
As a heterosexual person, I used to confuse many terms from LGBTQ like most people do, but it never gave me the right to curse or to be rude. In my own opinion it is disrespectful to ourselves and humankind. We are all humans and we have the same rights. Nobody deserves to be lonely, we all deserve to love and respect, be loved and respected.
We are all humans regardless of our gender, sexuality, skin color or ethnicity. We were conceived and born the same way, same planet.
Hashtags:
#LGBTQ #LGBTQ+ #LoveAndRespect Terminology
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