TSZ Magazine: June 2016 (Issue #1)

Ryan Rants: A Rundown of the LGBTQ+ Umbrella

by Ryan (@ryansgalaxy)

Now, when I say rundown, I mean rundown.  If this was a youtube video, it'd be like 1-2 minutes where the guy with a British accent talks so fast that you can't understand him and you have to watch it three times to understand it all.  Except you'll be reading a transcript instead of watching a video.

If there's one thing you gotta get straight (pun completely intended), it's that gender does not define sexuality, sexuality does not define romantic interest, and neither romantic interest nor sexuality define gender.  Great, now that that's out of the way, let's get started, shall we?

Sexuality

According to dictionary.com, sexual orientation is defined as "one's natural preference in sexual partners".  With that in mind, there are so many different sexualities out there, including, but not limited to:

-heterosexual

-homosexual (gay, lesbian)

-asexual (the prefix 'a' means 'not',  put two and two together on your own)

-pansexual (the prefix 'pan' means all, so this includes nonbinary, transgender, etc)

-bisexual (the prefix 'bi' means two.  that's all i'm gonna say on the matter)

-demisexual (the prefix 'demi' means partial, as I recall; however, demisexual is sexual attraction only with a strong emotional bond.  no hoe phase here)

...and there's more but I'm tired so I'll let you look this up on your own.  In short, who you wanna frick-frack defines your sexuality. Anyone who isn't heterosexual is often considered a 'sexual minority' because our society is heteronormative and heterosexuals happen to make up a lot of society.

Romantic Interest (or whatever you wanna call it)

Just because you are romantically attracted to [fill in gender here], does not mean you have to be sexually attracted to [said gender].  For example, you can be panromantic, but not pansexual.  You can be heterosexual but biromantic.  And the combinations go on. 

You can put the prefix of pretty much any of the sexualities and end with the suffix 'romantic' and you have a romantic identity.

Gender Identities

This one's my favorite because there's so much to talk about.  After I figured out there was something off about my gender identity, I performed extensive research to figure out what the was up with me.  It is so extremely important to, first and foremost, understand that your gender does not define your sexuality.  If a gay man transitions to a woman, the transgender woman can still be attracted to males.  She doesn't just magically change her sexuality to be attracted to women because she still has to be gay.  And if she decides to get bottom surgery, she can have heterosexual sex too.

For your convenience, I've split up gender into three parts: gender identity, gender expression, and sex.

Gender Identity

Gender identity is what's going on inside of your brain.  If a female [assigned at birth] wishes to be a male, male would be her [his] new gender identity.  He identifies with the gender male.  Gender dysphoria also starts in the brain with gender identity.  Gender dysphoria is the feeling of self-consciousness because your phenotype (physical traits) do not match your gender identity.

Gender Expression

Gender expression is using clothing or other external articles to match a particular gender identity.  Your gender expression does not have to match a gender identity, but a gender identity may be used to match the expression for the sake of not making up extra useless names.  Some drag queens are cisgender males who cross-dress as women.  They are not any less male, but they express themselves as a woman typically would.

[Biological] Sex

No, not like sex in bed.  Like you'd fill out on forms when it asks "What is your sex?"  Your sex is whats... down there.  Your sex does not necessarily need to match either your gender expression or identity.  Commonly, if you have a vagina, you would be considered female.  The sex you were assigned at birth with, unless you got bottom surgery, is also the sex you would check on the box.  However, take a FtM transgender teen, just because he has a vagina does not make him any less boy.  That is extremely important, that you can control how you identify yourself and how you express yourself, but chances are, if you're under 18, you can't control your sex.  And often, even over the age of 18, you still can't control it.  Bottom surgery is very costly.  And I'm not even sure how it works outside the US, if someone wants to enlighten me.

So now that we know what it all means, I suppose there are some key terms to know.

-cis[gender] (gender identity matches sex assigned at birth)

-trans* (umbrella term for everyone who isn't cis)

-transgender (someone who changes gender from one end of the binary to the other

-agender, bigender, pangender (connect the prefix to gender and you got it)

-genderfluid (fluxuates gender between random time periods, ex. day-to-day, one day they feel masculine, the next is more feminine)

there's more but if you want to know more, google it

One last thing about not just gender, but sexuality and romantic interest as well: None of these are binary.  There aren't just one or two strict options.  For example, gender binaries would be male and female.  However, you don't have to pick a side.  You can be both if you want.  Genderfluid, for example, would be considered nonbinary because it doesn't pick a side.  Bisexual, pansexual, bigender, trigender, agender, etc etc. are all nonbinary (of their own categories).  Gender is usually demonstrated with a matrix, so that on two ends are the binaries, but on, say, another side, there are the neutral genders or 'agender' (not the same thing, but can be put near each other).

Now, let's talk a little bit about me.  My gender identity is genderfluid.  My gender fluctuates usually with the seasons.  Usually, genderfluid people can transition on a day-to-day basis.  While I claim to transition between the seasons (with the wintertime, I feel more masculine and the summertime I feel more feminine), I sometimes transition during the seasons too.  At the time of writing this (sometime in the middle of June), I feel very masculine, which is abnormal for me at this time.  Also, genderfluid people don't transition strictly between the two gender binaries.  One day they may feel more masculine, another day they may feel more agender, and maybe the next day they feel feminine. In terms of sexuality, for sure, I'm straight, and though I've questioned my own sexuality a lot before deciding that I am, in fact, straight.

The last thing I want to make sure I include are common arguments presented against the LGBTQ+ community.  Several times I've heard "We have people screwing people of the same sex; what's next, people screwing animals?"  What the actual **** are you thinking if you are using this argument.  Beastiality is rape.  There is no argument for that because if the animal isn't human, it can't consent.  And if it's not consensual, it's rape.  And you're using rape as an argument against two people of the same sex who love each other and have consensual sex?

Another common argument I hear is "The bible says homosexuality is a sin" or "It's just not natural."  Well, it doesn't matter if your Jewish or Muslim or Christian.  Essentially, you all believe in the same God.  Your God wants you to lead a good life, does He not?  (Note: I'm using God as a general term)  Now I can tell you from a Christian perspective, and a similar perspective may apply to both Islam and Judaism, is that waaaaaaay back when, they needed to make homosexuality a sin because they needed to reproduce.  If you can't reproduce, your population doesn't grow and your civilization dies because there aren't enough kids to take over the civilization and lead the next generation.  HOWEVER.  It is the 21st century.  There are countries like India that's flowing with overpopulation.  According to UNICEF, there are 132 MILLION orphans worldwide.  I don't think we need to reproduce too much anymore and I really think the authenticity and morality of homosexuality is the least of this world's problems.  It's the 21st century, people.  We don't need to fight this anymore.  Even if the LGBT community doesn't get rights today or tomorrow, we will keep fighting till we have our rights.

Thanks for listening to me rant.  See you again in July. :)