Give me an L! L! you got your L, you got your L! Give me a G! G! you got your G, you got your G! Okay, that’s enough, because if we really finished that little cheer, we’d have to spell out LGBTQQIAA. Yep, we’d be here a while. However, these are also the sexual identities we’re going to explore in this chapter, as we just discussed why the binary approach to sexuality is no longer social or scientifically valid.
L=Lesbian
A lesbian is a women is is attracted to other women The word “attracted” doesn’t necessarily imply a sexual attraction. Rather, this can include sexual attraction, sexual activity, sexual fantasies, emotional preference for females, or lesbian identification.
G=Gay
The G represents gay males. While the word gay is an umbrella term that can describe homosexual men and women, typically the word gay is used to represent homosexual males, thus making it necessary to allow a separate identity for homosexual females (lesbians).
B=Bisexual
Bisexual people have sexual desires or behaviors for both men and women, and those desires or behaviors are more than just incidental or occasional. This definition would exclude heterosexual people who “experimented” with homosexual behavior but engaged in only heterosexual behaviors for the rest of their lives, and it would exclude homosexual people who experimented with heterosexual behaviors but exercised homosexual behaviors for the rest of their lives. Bisexuality is NOT a combination of heterosexuality and homosexuality, as previously thought in the sciences only a couple of decades ago.
T=Transgender
Transgender is an umbrella term, encompassing most identities for people who do not conform to traditional gender norms based on their assigned sex category. Some people also refer to being transgender as being gender nonconforming or gender variant. These are all acceptable descriptors for people who “cross gender barriers” but do not change their sex. So women who wear men’s clothes or men who wear women’s clothes might identify as being transgender. The word transgender is becoming more accepted than the word transvestite, because the word transvestite has an association with the medical community and sometimes has a derogatory meaning.
Transexuality refers to those who have undergone sex reassignment hormone therapy and/or surgery (gender affirming surgery). People who identify as being transsexual experience gender identity inconsistent with the culturally constructed gender assumptions based on their assigned sex category. While some people who are transsexual reject the label of transgender, transsexual is not an umbrella term like transgender.
Q=Queer
The word queer actually means “strange” or “odd.” However, in recent decades the word was used to denigrate people who identified as homosexual. The University of Michigan describes the word as such:
Queer:
- An umbrella term sometimes used by LGBTQA people to refer to the entire LGBT community.
- An alternative that some people use to "queer" the idea of the labels and categories such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, etc.
Similar to the concept of genderqueer. It is important to note that the word queer is an in-group term, and a word that can be considered offensive to some people, depending on their generation, geographic location, and relationship with the word.120
Queer theory challenges either/or, essentialist notions sexuality within the mainstream dialogue, and instead suggests an understanding of sexuality that emphasizes blurring boundaries and cultural constructions that change depending on historical and cultural context.
Q=Questioning
The second Q stands for questioning. This second Q represents people who may not feel like they fit nicely and neatly into one of these constructed boxes. While we are seeing some shift toward progress of understanding sexuality as a spectrum, we continue to create labels and identities that ultimately constrict people’s identities, behaviors, relationships, and social interpretations of sexuality. So we are seeing progress with more terms and categories than the traditional homosexual or heterosexual binary, but some people (even with the additional contemporary categories) don’t identify as strictly one of those. Often people who identify as “questioning” are exploring their identification.
I=Intersex
People who are intersexed have characteristics that are different than the prevalent notions of female and male. Sometimes the I is omitted form the LGBTQQIAA because they argue being intersexed is not part of or affect sexuality or sexual identity, and this does not belong in this string of letters. In other words, intersexuality is not about sexuality, it’s about sex category. Others argue intersexuality falls under the transgender umbrella and, therefore, belongs in this string of letters. What most sociologists agree on is that expanding our understanding of sexuality, sex, and gender is imperative for the health of our culture and the individuals within. Yes, our understanding is still imperfect and limited, but we are moving in a more enlightened direction.
A=Asexual
Asexuality is a sexual orientation characterized by a persistent lack of sexual attraction toward any gender or sex.121 At least 1% of people are believed to be asexual. People who are asexual are not genderless people or people with hormone imbalance or people who have a fear or phobia of sexual relationships. Instead, someone who is asexual simply does not experience sexual attraction for others. However, it is important t note, people engage in sexual behaviors for motives other than sexual attraction all the time. So, people who are asexual often date, have sex, masturbate, fall in love, get married, or have children.
A=Ally
Simply put, ally refers to people who are not LGBTQQIA but who support the rights of people who are LGBTQQIA. Empathy, understanding, and respecting the diverse human experience of sexuality will help lower health risks, hate crimes, discrimination, substance abuse, homelessness, and suicide and will improve social solidarity and the overall health of society.
120 https://internationalspectrum.umich....fe/definitions
121 http://www.whatisasexuality.com/intro/
