LGBT-who ? Here’s how you can be a good LGBTQIA+ ally
June is world International #PrideMonth and it’s more than just parades and parties. It’s time for all of us to take a step to re-familiarise and educate ourselves with a few LGBTQIA+ terminologies.
The society we are in is evolving everyday and is becoming more fluid. So, ChangeMakr Asia team has done our best to put together the most basic explanation possible but these terms commonly used by LGBTQIA+ people and their allies. At the end of the day, definitions shouldn’t box any individual/identity. How one personally chooses to evolve them, is valid and should be respected.
- AGENDER – someone who doesn’t categorise themselves into a particular gender.
- ALLY – an individual who is not personally a part of the LGBTQIA+ but supports and advocates for LGBTQIA+ rights
- ANDROGYNE – person appearing and/or identifying as neither man nor woman. Some androgyne individuals may present in a gender neutral or androgynous way
- ASEXUAL – an individual who does not experience sexual attraction. They may or may not experience emotional, physical, and/or romantic attraction. Asexuality differs from celibacy in that it is a sexual orientation, not a choice.
- AROMANTIC (short : ARO) – person who experiences little or no romantic attraction to others.
- AGENDER – someone who doesn’t categorise themselves into a particular gender.
- ALLY – an individual who is not personally a part of the LGBTQIA+ but supports and advocates for LGBTQIA+ rights
- ANDROGYNE – person appearing and/or identifying as neither man nor woman. Some androgyne individuals may present in a gender neutral or androgynous way
- ASEXUAL – an individual who does not experience sexual attraction. They may or may not experience emotional, physical, and/or romantic attraction. Asexuality differs from celibacy in that it is a sexual orientation, not a choice.
- BISEXUAL – an individual who experiences sexual, romantic, physical, and/or spiritual attraction to people of their own gender as well as other genders, not necessarily at the same time, in the same way, or to the same degree.
- CISGENDER – someone who has a gender identity that corresponds with the sex they are born with / assigned to them based on their physical sex.
- CISGENDER PRIVILEGE – the set of privileges conferred to people who are cisgender (some of which conferred conditionally to transgender people who are perceived to be cisgender). (Example : having one’s gender pronouns used correctly, no harrashment in public restrooms, no barriers to correct name and gender marker documentation, no denial of expected access to health care, etc.)
- COMING OUT – 1. The process of accepting one’s own sex, gender, and/or sexual identities (to “come out” to oneself). 2. The process of sharing one’s sex, gender, and sexual identity statuses with others (to “come out” to friends, etc.). 3. Alifelong process for individuals in the LGBTQ community.
- GENDER – the societal constructions that are assigned to male, female, and other identities. At times it does not correlate with an individual’s biology. How gender is embodied and defined varies from culture to culture and from person to person.
- GENDER EXPRESSION – how one presents oneself and one’s gender to the world via dress, mannerisms, hairstyle, facial hair etc. However, a person’s gender expression may not always match their gender identity.
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IN THE CLOSET – Refers to a person who will not or cannot disclose their sex, sexuality, sexual orientation or gender identity to their friends, family, coworkers, or society. An intersex person may be closeted due to ignorance about their status since medical practice is often to “correct,” whenever possible, intersex conditions early in childhood and to hide the medical history from the patient. There are varying degrees of being “in the closet.” For example, a person can be out in their social life, but in the closet at work, or with their family.
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- INTERSEX – individual(s) born with the condition of having physical sex markers (genitals, hormones, gonads, or chromosomes) that are neither clearly male nor female. Intersex people are sometimes defined as having “ambiguous” genitalia.
- LGBTQ – common abbreviation for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning people. The acronym is used as an umbrella term when talking about non heterosexual and non-cisgender identities, and does not always reflect members of the community. The acronym may be expanded to LGBTQIA to include intersex individuals, allies, and/or asexual people, or shortened to LGBQ when discussing only sexual orientation.
- NON-BINARY -an individual who doesn’t identify exclusively as female, male, or other.
- SEX – the label assigned at birth based on the genitals the person is born with.The assignments may/may not align with how a person feels or how they identify.
- TRANSGENDER – a person who identifies with a gender other than the gender they were assigned at birth. Sexual orientation varies and is not dependent on gender identity.
- QUEER –a term used to describe anyone who finds that the terms lesbian, gay and bisexual are perceived to be too limiting. This can be used to define LGBTQIA+ identities as a whole
