Ashley Mardell - The ABC’s Of LGBT+

Copyright 2016 by Ashley Mardell

Published by Mango Media Inc.

Theme and Layout: Roberto Nez

Illustrations: August Osterloh

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission.

ISBN 978-1-63353-408-7

Dedication

I dedicate this book to my family,

To Grace, for being the magnificent, brave prince she is. Without her resilient confidence in my abilities, Im not sure I would have been able to ward off the many self-doubt-monsters and uncertainty-mongrels, that troubled me as I wrote.

To Elliot for always warming my lap, walking on my keyboard, knocking over my coffee, and making me laugh as I wrote.

To Arthur for being fat, cute, and fluffy as I wrote.

Table of Contents

Part 1:
Spectrums

Part 2:
Gender

Part 3:
Sexual and Romantic Identities

The following few pages will act as a condensed version of the many terms and identities found in The ABCs of LGBT+ . I wanted the bulk of the information covered in this book to exist and be mapped out in one easy-to-access place. Each term on the cheat sheet is followed by a brief definition and many of these terms can be found in the books index. If you find a term or identity you want to learn more about, feel free to locate it in the index to find every page that term is discussed.

If you are an LGBTQIA+ terminology novice, you might consider giving these pages a once over before proceeding. Although well delve into more comprehensive definitions later, many of these words will be referenced right away. Having at least a basic understanding of them would be helpful. Alternatively, even if you are an LGBTQIA+ expert, you may still come across a word you are unfamiliar with before its defined. If thats the case, come back here!

Abrosexual/romantic: Someone who experiences a fluid and/or changing orientation.

Ace: An umbrella term for any identity on the asexual spectrum. Also shorthand for asexual.

Ace/aroflux: Someone who experiences varying degrees of attraction.

Affirm: to support, validate, and/or assert that something is true/correct.

Agender/genderless: Someone who is without gender, gender neutral, and/or rejects the concept of gender for themselves.

Ally: Someone who does not identify as LGBTQIA+, but actively supports the community.

Androgyne: A non-binary gender in which a person is both a man and woman, neither a man nor woman, and/or somewhere in between man and woman.

Androgynesexual/romantic: Someone who is attracted to androgyny.

Androgynous: Possessing qualities which are traditionally associated as both masculine and feminine, neither masculine nor feminine, and/or in between masculine and feminine.

Aporagender: Both a specific gender identity and an umbrella term for being a non-binary gender separate from man, woman, and anything in between while still having a very strong and specific gendered feeling.

Appropriation: Borrowing or adopting something as ones own when it did not originate from them or their culture. This type of use occurs without proper understanding, credit, and/or permission. (Example: white people wearing feathered headdresses as costumes during Halloween.)

Aro: An umbrella term for any identity on the aromantic spectrum. Also shorthand for aromantic.

Aromantic: An umbrella term, or stand-alone identifier, for someone who experiences little or no romantic attraction.

Asexual: An umbrella term, or stand-alone identifier, for someone who experiences little or no sexual attraction.

Autosexual/romantic: Being able to elicit a sexual/romantic attraction from yourself by yourself and/or not desiring to partake in sexual activity with others, but still enjoying being sexually intimate with yourself.

Bicurious: Someone curious about having sexual/romantic attractions and/or experiences with more than one gender.

Bigender: Someone who has/experiences two genders.

Binary: The rigid way society divides sex and gender into only two categories: 1) male/men and 2) female/women.

Bisexual/romantic: Being attracted to two or more genders.

CAFAB/CAMAB: These are acronyms for coercively assigned female at birth and coercively assigned male at birth.

Cisgender/Cis: A person whose gender identity is the same as their sex and/or gender assigned at birth.

Conflate: To confuse, blend, connect or combine two independent things/ideas.

Community: When this book uses the term community it refers to a collective group of LGBTQIA+ people and organizations, as well as their supporters, who are all united by common identities, cultures, and/or social goals.

Demigender: Someone who has/experiences a partial connection to one or more genders.

Demisexual/romantic: A person who only experiences attraction to people with whom they have formed a strong emotional bond.

DFAB/AFAB/FAAB: Acronyms for designated female at birth, assigned female at birth, and female assigned at birth.

Diamoric: In terms of personal identity, a non-binary person may identify as diamoric to emphasize their own non-binary identity and their attraction to/relationship(s) with other non-binary people. In terms of a relationship, a diamoric relationship or attraction is one that involves at least one non-binary person.

DMAB/AMAB/MAAB: Acronyms for designated male at birth, assigned male at birth, and male assigned at birth.

Enby: This is a slang term meaning a non-binary person.

Erasure: When an identity is given insufficient representation, made invisible, or its existence is invalidated.

Female to Female/FTF: Someone whose sex and/or gender was assigned male at birth and who rejects that their gender was ever male.

Fluid: Not fixed, able to change.

-flexible: Suffix indicating someone is predominantly attracted to one gender but allows for and acknowledge exceptions. (Example usages: heteroflexible, homoflexible, etc.)

-flux: In regards to orientation, flux, is a suffix that indicates that a persons attractions fluctuate in amount or intensity. (Example usages: biflux, trifux, polyflux, etc.)

FTM: Acronym for female to male.

Gay: This label can refer specifically to men who are attracted to men; it can refer to people who are primary attracted to the same or similar gender as their own; or it can be an umbrella term for anyone who is not straight.

Gender: In the context of individual self, gender is the state of being a man, a woman, both, neither, somewhere in between, or something entirely different. In the context of society, gender is a system of classification rooted in social ideas about masculinity and femininity.

Gender confusion/Gender f*ck: A person who deliberately seeks to cause, or enjoys when they create, confusion in regards to their own gender.

Gender dysphoria: Distress or unhappiness experienced because ones gender does not match their sex and/or gender assigned at birth.

Gender euphoria: Extreme happiness, or comfortability, experienced because a persons gender is being affirmed.

Gender expression: The manifestation of ones gender.

Gender identity: The identifier (or lack of identifier) someone uses to communicate how they understand their personal gender, navigate within or outside our societal gender systems, and/or desire to be perceived by others.

Gender indifferent: Being gender indifferent means being apathetic about ones gender/gender expression.