Christian and an Ally | Why Being Gay is Okay ✓

What About the Other Letters?

Up until this point, I have mostly focused on the gay part of the LGBTQ+ community, but as most of you know, there is much more to the community than just L and G. So, I want to briefly go over what each of the letters in the acronym stand for.

First of all, there are many different versions of the acronym. The most commonly used version is LGBT, followed by LGBT+ and LGBTQ+.

Personally, I use LGBTQ+ because I think it encompasses just enough to be inclusive while being short enough for use in everyday conversation. It pays homage to the original acronym (LGBT), while including the all-inclusive umbrella term for people who aren't heterosexual (queer) and the +, in case people still feel left out. Some people go further with the acronym, adding more and more letters in an attempt to be inclusive. However, adding too many letters makes the acronym clunky and hard to remember, which defeats the purpose of having an acronym in the first place. In my opinion, it is best to cut it off at LGBTQ+, while still educating people about what identities hide behind the plus sign.

For this chapter, I will try to list off as many identities as I can, but I know that I will miss some, because the queer community is always morphing, changing, and growing. I apologize in advance for any omissions or mistakes!

Agender: the absence of gender; a neutral gender that is neither male or female.

Alloromantic: a person who experiences romantic attraction or desire for other people; the opposite of aromantic. See aromantic, demiromantic, gray-romantic.

Allosexual: a person who experiences sexual attraction or desire for other people; the opposite of asexual. See asexual, demisexual, gray-asexual.

Ally: someone who supports and promotes equality for the LGBTQ+ community.

Androsexual: someone who is attracted to men or masculinity; see gynesexual. 

Aromantic: a person who lacks romantic attraction or desire for other people; see demiromantic, gray-romantic, alloromantic.

Asexual: a person who lacks sexual attraction or desire for other people; see gray-asexual, demisexual, allosexual.

Biromantic: a person who is romantically attracted to two (or more) gender identities, although not always to the same degree or at the same time; polyromantic can also be used for someone attracted to multiple (but not all) genders.

Bisexual: a person who is emotionally, romantically, and/or sexually attracted to two (or more) gender identities, although not always to the same degree or at the same time; polysexual can also be used for someone attracted to multiple (but not all) genders. 

Cisgender: a person whose gender identity agrees with the sex they were assigned at birth., i.e. male or female.

Demiromantic: a person who only develops romantic feelings for someone after establishing an emotional connection. See gray-romantic, aromantic, alloromantic.

Demisexual: a person who only develops sexual feelings for someone after establishing a romantic connection; see asexual, gray-asexual, allosexual.

FTM: a person who has made, is making, or will make the transition from female to male; see trans man, transgender.

Gay: a person who is exclusively attracted emotionally, romantically, and/or sexually to the same gender; a man who is exclusively attracted to other men; an umbrella term for the entire LGBTQ+ community; see lesbian.