Tarheel Writer - LGBTIQA+ - What does it mean?

LGBTIQA+
What does it mean?

I am sure you have seen the acronym GBLTQ or sometimes GNLTQ+ or even LGBTIQA+. It does not matter. They all represent the same people, the same citizens, the same human beings. There is so much more behind those simple five letters. Scroll down to explore the world GBLTQ.

The Tarheel Writer - On the Web since 24 February 2003. Celebrating 21 Years on the Internet!

Tarheel Home Page

This page updated Date and Time Site Updated Saturday 21 December 2024 9:24 AM EST

EXPLAINATIONS!

    Most people use LGBTIQA+ to mean all of the identities included; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Transsexual, Two-spirited, Queer, Questioning, Asexual, Intersex, Ally and more. The most important thing to remember is to be respectful and use the term that people prefer.
    Here is an explainaton of these identities:

Lesbian
    A lesbian is a female homosexual: a female who experiences romantic love or sexual attraction to other females.

Gay
    Gay is 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
    Bisexuality is 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
    Transgender is 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
    Transexuals experience a gender identity inconsistent or not culturally associated with the sex they were assigned at birth.

Two-Spirited
    Two-Spirited is 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.

Queer
    Queer is 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
    Intersex is a variation in sex characteristics including chromosomes, gonads, or genitals that do not allow an individual to be distinctly identified as male or female.

Asexual
    Asexuality (or nonsexuality) 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.

Ally
    An Ally is a person who considers themselves a friend to the LGBTQ+ community.

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.

Agender
    Agender people, also called genderless, genderfree, non-gendered, or ungendered 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
    Gender Queer is an umbrella term for gender identities that are not exclusively masculine or feminine—identities which are thus outside of the gender binary and cisnormativity.

Gender Neutrality
    Gender neutrality, also known as gender-neutralism or the gender neutrality movement, is the idea that policies, language, and other social institutions (social structures, gender roles, or gender identity) should avoid distinguishing roles according to people's sex or gender. This is in order to avoid discrimination arising from the impression that there are social roles for which one gender is more suited than another.

Bigender
    Bigender is a gender identity where the person moves between feminine and masculine gender identities and behaviours, possibly depending on context. Some bigender individuals express two distinct “female” and “male” personas, feminine and masculine respectively; others find that they identify as two genders simultaneously.

Gender Variant
    Gender variance, or gender nonconformity, is behaviour 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
    Pangender people are 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.

FLAGS!

Rainbow Flag - Created in 1978 by Gilbert Baker, the iconic Pride Rainbow flag originally had eight stripes. The colors included pink to represent sexuality, red for healing, yellow for sun, green for serenity with nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony, and violet for spirit. In the years since, the flag now has six colors. It no longer has a pink stripe, and the turquoise and indigo stripes were replaced with royal blue.

Progress Pride Flag - Created in 2018 by nonbinary artist Daniel Quasar, the Progress Pride flag is based on the iconic 1978 rainbow flag. With stripes of black and brown to represent marginalized LGBTIQ+ people of color and the triad of blue, pink, and white from the trans flag, the design represents diversity and inclusion.

Trans Flag - Conceived by Monica Helms, an openly transgender American woman, the Trans flag debuted in 1999. The light blue and light pink symbolize the traditional colors for baby girls and baby boys, respectively. Meanwhile, the white hue represents movement members who identify as intersex, gender-neutral, or transitioning. According to Helms, the flag is symmetrical, so “no matter which way you fly it, it is always correct, signifying us finding correctness in our lives.”

Intersex Flag - With a palette of yellow and purple, which are colors historically associated with intersex people, this flag was created in July 2013 by Morgan Carpenter. The flag’s colors and symbols “seek to completely avoid anything to do with gender,” and the purple circle “symbolizes wholeness, completeness and our potentialities,” according to Carpenter.

Bisexual Flag - Created in 1998 by Michael Page, the bisexual flag features pink and royal blue with an overlapping purple stripe in the center. The pink represents attraction toward the same sex, and the royal blue stands for attraction toward the opposite sex. The purple band symbolizes attraction to all genders.

Lesbian Flag - The most commonly used Lesbian flag, the new lesbian flag(s), was created in 2018 by Tumblr blogger Emily Gwen. Two versions of this flag exist, one with seven stripes and the other more simplified version with five stripes. Dark orange signifies gender non-conformity, orange signifies independence, light orange signifies community, white signifies unique relationships to womanhood, pink signifies serenity and peace, dusty pink signifies love and sex, and dark rose signifies femininity.

Pansexual Flag - Adopted in 2010, the pansexual flag has three horizontal stripes: pink, yellow, and cyan. Most definitions claim that pink and cyan represent attraction to females and males, respectively, while yellow signifies nonbinary attraction.

Nonbinary Flag - With a quartet of horizontal stripes of yellow, white, purple, and black, the nonbinary flag was conceptualized by Kye Rowan in 2014. The yellow stripe represents those whose genders do not exist within the binary. White and purple correspond to people identifying with all or many genders and those who may consider themselves a mix of female and male. Lastly, the black stripe accounts for those who identify as having no gender.

Asexual Flag - First officially used in August 2010, the asexual pride flag consists of four horizontal stripes: black, gray, white, and purple from top to bottom. Black represents asexuality, and gray signifies the gray area between sexuality and asexuality. The white stripe denotes non-asexual partners, and the purple stripe stands for community.

Genderfluid Flag - The genderfluid flag was created in 2012 by JJ Poole and features five stripes. In its array of colors, pink and blue represent femininity and masculinity, while purple is inclusive of both masculinity and femininity. Meanwhile, the black stripe stands for those who do not associate with any gender, while the white stripe includes all genders.

Agender Flag - Unveiled in 2014 and designed by Salem X, the agender flag features a mirrored design of seven horizontal stripes. The black and white stripes represent an absence of gender, the gray stripe represents semi-genderlessness, and the central green stripe represents nonbinary genders.

Genderqueer Flag - Designed in 2011 by Marilyn Roxie, a genderqueer writer and advocate, the genderqueer flag features lavender, white and chartreuse stripes. According to Roxie, the lavender stripe is a mix of blue and pink—colors traditionally associated with male and female—and represents androgyny as well as queer identities. The white stripe represents agender and/or gender-neutral identities. The chartreuse stripe is the inverse of lavender on the color wheel and represents third-gender identities and identities outside the gender binary.