With Pride starting tomorrow, I'm going to do a string of Educational
Posts. Today, we're doing some vocabulary for orientations and
gender! Suggestions and requests for future topics are welcome. I am not most of the things on this list, so if you see one
that applies to you that I didn’t get Quite Right, please tell me
and I’ll edit in corrections. Please feel free to share this, just don't remove credit.
Heterosexual
(hetero) - Base word hetero, based on the Greek word for different.
Attraction to different genders.
Cisgender (cis) -
Base word, cis, is Latin for "same side". People who
identify with their gender as assigned as birth. So, if you popped
out and they said "Congrats, it's a girl!" and you're like
"Yeah ok" you're cis!
Cis Het – A
combination of the two above, and as almost all umbrella terms refer
to “not these things” I wanted to be very clear on this one.
Homosexual (homo) -
Base word homo, meaning same. People attracted to the same gender.
Subcategories
Gay (so many other
terms) - Means "happy" and usually refers to men attracted
to other men. It is also often used as an umbrella term for not cis
het folks (EX: Gay rights, gay marriage) to keep things nice and
confusing!
Lesbian – “From
the island of Lesbos” aka where Sappho, a poet known for writing
love poetry about other women is from. Despite being known as “the
biggest lesbian to ever lesbian” Sappho was actually bi, fun fact!
Queer – Means
strange, and is an umbrella term for “not cis het” with a lot of
baggage. Historically it’s been a slur, but has been reclaimed
since. However due to said history a lot of people have mixed and
complicated feelings about it. Some people like it because it’s
provocative and has history, other’s dislike it for those same
reasons.
Bisexual (bi) –
Base word meaning “two”, the Official Definition By Bis is “two
or more” or “same and different”. This does NOT mean “man and
woman” because those are not the only genders, and it is possible
for a bisexual to be attracted to women and non-binary folks but not
men and they are still bi. I’ll do a longer form post on bisexuals
and pansexuals later.
Pansexual (pan) –
Base word meaning “all”. Meaning just that, they are attracted to
all genders. Many folks will use bi and pan as SELF IDENTIFIERS for
themselves interchangeably, but not everyone does, so be aware and
respectful about that.
Asexual (Ace) –
Little to no sexual attraction or desire. That does not mean they
however that they don’t have ROMANTIC attraction (there will be
another more in depth post on the difference between sexual and
romantic attraction later)
Aromantic (aro) –
Little to no romantic attraction or desire. They don’t want to date
anyone.
Aro ace –
Aromantic asexuals, they have no use for tinder and sound like
fighter pilots.
Demisexual (demi) –
Root word is half, or less. These folks are on the ace spectrum and
do not experience sexual attraction before having some sort of mental
or emotional connection. You will often see things like “demisexual
biromantic” which roughly translates to “I am open to dating
multiple genders but we’re gonna go slow kay?”
Gray asexual (gray
ace) – Some but not much sexual attraction.
Transgender – Root
word for “across”, someone who does not agree with their assigned
at birth gender. So when they popped out the doctor was like “It’s
a girl!” and they’re like “Nah”. Also used as an umbrella
term for “not cis”
Trans man/Trans
woman – Men and women who are trans. Two words. “Isn’t
transgender one word?” yeah I know English is fake. Also the
consensus was compounding it distanced them from other people of
their gender so, two words.
Non binary (NB) –
Someone who does not fall within one of the binary (male/female)
genders. Often used as a smaller umbrella within the trans umbrella.
Agender – A lack
of gender. Genderless. They reject your concept of gender and are
using that space to store snacks.
Gender fluid –
Gender is inherently fluid, but for these people it flows more
quickly and to wider extremes than most folks. So, depends on the
day, you should ask.
Gender nonconforming (GNC) – These people do not subscribe to a binary gender.
Demiboy/Demigirl –
Almost but not QUITE whatever the second part is. If gender is a
scale of 1-10, with 1 and 2 being men, and 9 and 10 being women, with
4-7 being most non-binary genders, demigenders would be the 3 and 8.
Two Spirit –
A term used to describe Native gender concepts that don’t map to
European binary gender concepts. Wiki page below.
LGBTQA2s –
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer (and/or questioning), Asexual
(NOT ALLY), and Two Spirit
If there are any
terms you’ve seen floating around that I don’t go over here that
you think I should cover, let me know and I’ll try to add them in!
