An Introduction to Labels for Gender and Sexuality

The queer population in America is growing. According to Gallup's most recent polling, 5.6% of the US population now identifies as a member of the LGBTQ community. This number may sound small, but it amounts to over 18 million Americans. Also, the number is up from 2017, when only 4.5% of the population identified as LGBTQ, and the Generation Z demographic is responsible for the growth in a major way, with 15.9% of them identifying as members of the queer community.

Societal acceptance, public awareness, and an increase in resources for queer youth on the internet and beyond have undoubtedly contributed to the rise, but even so, curious and questioning people may feel lost. Learning queer vocabulary can be daunting to everyone from allies to people who have been out and proud for fifty years.

Of course, there can be power in labels and organization, but sometimes it can be overwhelming. Gender and sexual identities are deeply personal. There's absolutely no need for you to rush to label yourself nor is there any shame in your label evolving or changing later on. So how can anyone navigate all these moving parts effectively?

Many of the terms used in the queer community are common knowledge, but some are more niche or complex. Even common words like "gay" and "lesbian" can have dual meanings depending on who is using them. Below is a summary of some gender theory and common queer terms that would be helpful to know.

Gender

Typically, people fall into the categories of cisgender or transgender. Babies, even unfortunately in the case of intersex individuals, are either assigned male at birth (AMAB) or assigned female at birth (AFAB). This typically determines their identity until someone is old enough to contemplate their gender, which can still happen quite young. Someone is considered cisgender if their gender identity corresponds with what they were assigned at birth. In other words, if someone was AFAB and felt comfortable identifying as a girl/woman all their life, they would be cis. Based on current rhetoric, someone who is cisgender would either be a cis male or cis female. To be transgender or trans is simply the opposite, it means that someone's gender identity differs from what they were assigned at birth in some way.

Someone may also identify as nonbinary, which means that their identity does not fit squarely into male or female or one of the terms above. Another word for this is genderqueer, and enby and NB can be used as slang for a non-binary person. People will sometimes define nonbinary as an "in between" gender, but that is not exactly accurate. It should be thought of as "outside" the binary. Some may use the term agender instead to further distance themselves from the gender binary, or they may say genderfluid to indicate that their identity fluctuates. People can, however, use the binary to help define their identity. Transmasculine and transfeminine are adjectives that nonbinary individuals may use to define gender expression. Transmasc and transfemme can also be used as identities on their own.

A nonbinary person also may or may not consider themselves "trans"-gender, even though they fall under the basic definition of the term. This depends on their relationship with the gender binary and where they fall on the spectrum. For example, Noel, the author of this post, identifies with the term "nonbinary man," but since he was assigned male at birth, he feels that no "transition" has taken place. He enjoys all the privileges afforded males and those who are cisgendered, so he would never consider himself part of the trans community. You may be beginning to see how different terms relate to different things. Sex in the clinical sense, gender identity, and gender expression are all independent of one another.

One last note on gender, a trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF) is someone who, among other beliefs, does not recognize the validity of transgender identities. The term was coined in 2008 and originally referred to cisgender feminists who reduced trans women's identities to their genitals and did not include them in their social justice movements. The definition has now grown to include anti-trans sentiment across all areas of the political and social spectrum. For the purpose of the sexuality discussion below, but also in general, please consider transgender men to be men and transgender women to be women.

Sexuality

To begin, the most basic sexuality terms are heterosexual/straight and homosexual/gay. Heterosexuality is defined as being attracted to the "opposite" sex. Considering the complex web of identities explained above, someone may become non-heterosexual simply by way of exploring or interpreting their own gender. A straight couple would typically be thought of as a cisgender man and woman together, but again, to reiterate a point made above, a straight, cisgender man would still be heterosexual if they dated a trans woman, and vice versa.

Homosexuality is defined as attraction to one's "own" gender, which, again, can get murky, and the dictionary defines being gay as simply being a homosexual person, usually a man. However, the use of "gay" in the queer community is not always that precise. It is worth noting that it can be used as a catchall term for the LGBTQ community. A bisexual person may jokingly refer to themselves as "gay," and a "gay bar" may not cater to just gay men. Furthermore, a lesbian is defined simply as a "gay woman." This meaning also does not represent the complexity of the term. People of various gender identities may choose to use the label. Karina Aslanyan, a friend of the author who identifies as a transmaculine, nonbinary lesbian, defines the lesbian label to mean, "non-men attracted to non-men."

Bisexuality is sometimes understood to mean attraction to "both men and women," but really it means anyone who is attracted to more than one gender. Although, "bi" may imply only "two" genders, it is more like a category, and it can mean different things for different people. Someone who fits under the bisexual umbrella may choose a similar label like pansexual or polysexual, both of which imply a more explicit attraction to "all" or "many" genders. It's a common misconception that once a bisexual person has a partner, they cease to be bisexual. Whether a bisexual feels that they are "part straight" and "part gay" is entirely unique to the person. They may choose to think in those terms, but this should never be assumed. You shouldn't ask, "are you more gay or more straight," in the same way you shouldn't ask a transgender person about their anatomy nor ask a gay couple, "so which one is the husband and which one is the wife?"

There is some debate about whether asexuality, defined as a lack of sexual attraction to some degree, belongs in the queer community in and of itself. The definitions above refer to "who" people are attracted to, not "how" they are attracted, so some believe that an asexual person must have some other identity to belong to the queer community. An asexual person can also be transgender for example. Others argue that the group is marginalized and should be included. That's as far into the politics and theory of this identity as this post will go, but you should be aware of the term. It is also worth noting that some people may want to distinguish between their romantic attraction and sexual attraction, using different labels for each.

If you want to know more about these terms, gender theory, or queer history, you may be interested in this list of resources from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation or lesson plans from the Anti-Defamation League. This page from the University of California San Francisco offers further insight into gender and discussions about pronoun usage. Alternatively, searching for LGBTQ resources near you is encouraged.