Describing acronyms of the LGBT+ community

Living in this heterosexual normative society, it's been quite some time that we have used the word LGBTQ+ community to describe ourselves. But very few of us know the complete meaning of these alphabets. So we decided to amalgamate all the words here and tell you the meaning of each word individually. We understand if you don’t like to be label yourself or put under a specific category, the entire mention of this article is for educating our community, to help us understand each other better. 

The word lesbian is usually associated with any individual who is biologically a ‘Female’ and is sexually and romantically attracted to the same gender. Many women are sexually attracted to the same gender but do not even realise about that until they are in a serious relationship with men due to lack of knowledge or societal pressures. It’s weird to see how heterosexual are usually aroused by lesbians but they disgust gay men. 

Men who are sexually attracted sexually or romantically to the same gender are referred to as Gay men. Although many lesbians also prefer using ‘gay’ to describe themselves. In the early days of civilisation and religion, gay men were the most targeted individuals and were always punished if they were found indulging in homosexual activity. 

There are some men and women who are attracted towards both the gender, they are known as bisexuals. It’s not a phase or a term gay men use to hide their sexual orientation. Being bisexual is as valid as being gay or straight. It has been proven that every heterosexual person has little bisexual tendencies, but very few of them act upon it. 

Imagine being an individual who is born with the male reproductive system and everyone classifying you as a man, but internally you feeling like a woman or vice versa. If you feel this way, there is a possibility that you are a transgender. Many people confuse transgender’s for being intersex, but in reality, both are completely different. As being an intersex is a physical thing while being a transgender is mental. (Also Read- Everything wrong with India’s Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019)

There are many of us, who believe that they might not be heterosexuals but are not sure about their orientation yet, they are classified under the questioning stage. They are yet to explore their options to decide what feels right to them and then decide their sexual orientation. There are a lot of judgements questioning individuals get from society and our community. But its time we understand that they are as valid as we think we are. 

Many individuals do not like to label themselves in any of those above and below boxes, for them, there is an umbrella term called ‘Queer’. The simple meaning of this term is that they are not heterosexual or cisgender individuals. Initially, there were very few people who even knew the term queer but today its the widely used term in the LGBT community.

For a lot of us, being in the LGBT Community is due to our mental realisation of feeling different from others or being physically or romantically attracted towards others, but being intersex is completely different. While we are born with our proper set of sexual organs, they are either born with both or none. This causes their parents to know about their infants since birth about them being different, few decide to keep the child while other’s decision to give them away. Since childhood, there was always a rumour that transgenders kidnap infants, but in reality, they usually are given intersex babies, as their biological parents don’t wish to raise these baby themselves.

Pansexuality is also a term which has recently seen a lot of light in the community, a lot of people still confused it for being sexually attracted towards a ‘pan’ (utensil used to fry), but they are wrong. Being a pansexual means that they don’t get attracted to the gender or a person’s genitalia, they fall in love with the person. It could be a male or a female or a trans and even an intersex person. They are sexually and romantically attracted to the person and not the gender. 

There are a lot of people who confuses being two-spirited with being transgender, but they are wrong. As being a two-spirit means that they feel that they have the presence of a male and a female spirit within themselves. This word is preferred by some indigenous people to describe it as a sexual or spiritual identity.

An androgynous person is the one who has both male and female traits. They usually do not adhere to gender norms, as they find a middle ground to express themselves. The attire that they normally wear is a combination of what a man or woman would wear. Many individuals have started dressing androgynously. 

A lot of people after experimenting with sex start claiming that they are asexual, but in reality, they are just bored of having sex and they find someone attractive again, they will start feeling sexually attracted. Being an asexual person means that there is no sexual attraction whatsoever. There might be times when they would romantically be attracted to someone, but they never feel the urge to act on it sexually. 

(In this article, we have only decided to feature the descriptions of ‘LGBTQQIP2SAA’, if you need a description of any more sexualities, sexual orientations or want us to write on any specific topics, write to us at closetedstance@gmail.com or DM us on our social media platforms.)