by Raisa S.N Charles
Queerness is a vast landscape of identities and experiences that can overlap and sometimes sit so close to each other it’s hard to tell them apart. So, in honour of Pride Month, The Fine Print offers this explainer of common queer terms and identities as an entry point to understanding the community and its surrounding issues.
Sex
At its simplest, sex can be defined as the state of being male or female. A person typically falls into one of these two categories based on their sexual organs. Generally, people with penises are assigned the sex male at birth (AMAB), while people with vaginas are assigned the sex female at birth (AFAB). Some people’s bodies don’t fit typical male or female definitions. These people are considered intersex.
Sexual Orientation
The American Psychological Association defines sexual orientation as an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions to another person. It’s a way to describe the type of person you’re attracted to.
The two most commonly discussed sexual orientations are heterosexuality (i.e.:being straight), and homosexuality (i.e being gay/lesbian). A heterosexual person is attracted to people whose gender or sex is different from their own, while a homosexual person is attracted to people whose sex or gender is the same as their own. Remember, these are only two categories on a spectrum of sexual identities. Some people aren’t attracted to just one sex or gender. They may be attracted to all or any combination of these. Bisexual people are attracted both to people of the same sex or gender, and to those who aren’t. Pansexual people are attracted to people of any sex or gender.
An often overlooked segment of the queer community is asexual people . An asexual person has little to no sexual attraction to people of any gender.
Sexual Identity
Sexual identity is often confused with sexual orientation and while the two are similar, they are not the same. If sexual orientation is who you are attracted to, then sexual identity is how you understand that attraction and the language you use to describe it. It involves a person’s self concept. In other words, you can feel an attraction without making it part of your identity.
Sexual behaviour
This brings us to the concept of sexual behaviour. A person’s sexual behaviour refers to who they actively engage in sexual acts with. It may or may not be aligned with their sexual orientation or sexual identity. For example, a person who experiences bisexual attraction may not necessarily engage in sexual acts with people of both sexes and/or genders.
Gender
Gender has to do with the social behaviour expected of a person based on their assigned sex. It involves our ideas about what is masculine and what is feminine. Masculinity is conventionally associate with men while femininity is conventionally associated with women. Gender is often mistakenly conflated with sex. Gender and sex are not the same and should not be used interchangeably.
Gender Identity
An individual’s gender identity has to do one’s personal experience of their gender. It can be described as whether a person “feels like” a man, a woman, both or neither.
Gender expression
Gender expression involves how a person expresses their gender in their daily life and how they want to be seen. It includes the way they dress and the pronouns they use.
Transgender
A transgender person has a gender identity that differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.
Cisgender
A person whose assigned sex at birth corresponds with their gender identity. The prefix cis- is Latin and means “on this side of”.
Non-binary
Sex and gender are generally thought of as binaries. Male or female. Masculine or Feminine. A person one whose gender identity falls outside of this binary. They might not identify with either masculinity or femininity, or may consider themselves an amalgam of both.
This list is by no means exhaustive. In fact, it is just the opposite. All the terms described in this explainer can be examined through a more detailed lens. If you’re interested in learning more, please refer to the resources listed below.
https://www.apa.org/topics/lgbtq/orientation
https://www.britannica.com/story/has-pink-always-been-a-girly-color
