A guide to LGBTQIA+ Community! Terms, you must know...

Radhika Bansal, Ground Report:

We always come across people who belongs to LGBTQIA+ community. We know about their sexual preferences and we know that person. But is our LGBTQIA+ terminology is up to the mark? Do we know what does all the basic words related to LGBTQIA+ Community means?

Here are the most important terms you must know about the LGBTQIA+ Community because to educate others, one must be educated themselves.

Here we go:

• Ally - A person who is not LGBTQ but shows support for LGBTQ people and promotes equality in a variety of ways.
• Androgynous - Identifying and/or presenting as neither distinguishably masculine nor feminine.
• Asexual - The lack of a sexual attraction or desire for other people.
• Bisexual - A person emotionally, romantically or sexually attracted to more than one sex, gender or gender identity though not necessarily simultaneously, in the same way or to the same degree.
• Closeted - Describes an LGBTQ person who has not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity.
• Coming out - The process in which a person first acknowledges, accepts and appreciates their sexual orientation or gender identity and begins to share that with others.
• Gay - A person who is emotionally, romantically or sexually attracted to members of the same gender.
• Gender-expansive - Conveys a wider, more flexible range of gender identity and/or expression than typically associated with the binary gender system.
• Gender-fluid - According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a person who does not identify with a single fixed gender; of or relating to a person having or expressing a fluid or unfixed gender identity.
• Genderqueer - Genderqueer people typically reject notions of static categories of gender and embrace a fluidity of gender identity and often, though not always, sexual orientation. People who identify as "genderqueer" may see themselves as being both male and female, neither male nor female or as falling completely outside these categories.
• Homophobia - The fear and hatred of or discomfort with people who are attracted to members of the same sex. 
• Intersex - An umbrella term used to describe a wide range of natural bodily variations. In some cases, these traits are visible at birth, and in others, they are not apparent until puberty. Some chromosomal variations of this type may not be physically apparent at all. 
• Lesbian - A woman who is emotionally, romantically or sexually attracted to other women.
• LGBTQIA - An acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/questioning, intersex and asexual or allied.
• Living openly - A state in which LGBTQ people are comfortably out about their sexual orientation or gender identity – where and when it feels appropriate to them. 
• Non-binary - An adjective describing a person who does not identify exclusively as a man or a woman. Non-binary people may identify as being both a man and a woman, somewhere in between, or as falling completely outside these categories. While many also identify as transgender, not all non-binary people do. 
• Outing - Exposing someone’s lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender identity to others without their permission. Outing someone can have serious repercussions on employment, economic stability, personal safety or religious or family situations.
• Pansexual - Describes someone who has the potential for emotional, romantic or sexual attraction to people of any gender though not necessarily simultaneously, in the same way or to the same degree.
• Queer - A term people often use to express fluid identities and orientations. Often used interchangeably with "LGBTQIA."
• Sexual orientation - An inherent or immutable enduring emotional, romantic or sexual attraction to other people.
• Transgender - An umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or expression is different from cultural expectations based on the sex they were assigned at birth. Being transgender does not imply any specific sexual orientation. Therefore, transgender people may identify as straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, etc.

I hope now you are clear with all the terms related to this community. Let’s make this world a better place to live by respecting and accepting each and everyone.

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