We have all heard of the term LGBTQ+, but ever wondered what’s the ‘+’ in the term? Or ever wondered, what’s the meaning of those alphabets? Or who are LGBTQ+? Well this article will answer all these questions (if you ever tried thinking about it).

Pride month has just passed but it’s not like we cannot celebrate it now. In fact we should celebrate it the whole year by not treating the community like aliens. But since the pride month has just ended and we have already put #LoveisLove #Pride #Pridemonth in our insta posts, let’s know the meaning behind the term LGBTQ+. 

THE ‘+’

A lot of people wonder what the plus sign in LGBTQ+ community is for. Well, let’s say that there is a history behind this concept.

Years ago, when the community was trying to make people understand that it’s not wrong to be different than them they used to use the term ‘Gay’ for it. They unknowingly forgot that Gay people are not the only people who get discriminated for being different.

After sometime, People urged to the supporters of community to use the term ‘LGBT’ when supporting. The reason was to include the Lesbians, Bisexuals and transgenders, when talking about the rights.

Then after sometime people added the ‘Q’ to the term to include the ‘Queer’ or the ‘Questioning’ to the community which made the community called as the ‘LGBTQ’ community.

But now we use the term LGBTQ+. The plus symbol is used to serve two purposes, which are,

1.      The plus sign denotes that how the community is welcomes everyone who wants to join them. Everyone can join the community without any hesitation and the people are happy for them to join it.

2.      Lesbians, gay, bisexuals, transgender and queer are not the only types of sexuality which falls under LGBTQ+ community, to denote them all the plus sign is used.

BREAKING DOWN LGBTTQQIAAP

As said before there are many other people who are the proud members of the lgbtq+ community. LGBTTQQIAAP is the inclusive form of the LGBTQ+ community. This stands for, ‘Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Transsexual, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, Ally, and Pansexual.’

So let’s start understanding the each community and see what their flag is.

1.      LESBIAN

A lesbian is a woman who’s sexually and romantically attracted to the same gender as hers (women of course). The term is one of the most popular sexuality in the community.

(LESBIAN PRIDE FLAG)

 2.      GAY

Man who is sexually and romantically attracted to the same gender as him. Also this is the most popular sexuality in the community and the word denotes everyone who’s attracted to the same gender.

(Gay Pride Flag)

 3.      BISEXUAL

Bisexuals are people who can be attracted to both the Male and Female. That is, a woman can love a man but she can also be attracted to a woman and a man can love a woman but can also be attracted to a man. Just to be more precise, Bisexuals get attracted to only males and females.

(BISEXUAL PRIDE FLAG)

 4.      TRANSGENDERS

Now let’s solve the confusion (Because many people confuse the term with transsexual). Transgender are the people who live according to the gender which is opposite of what the gender was assigned to them after the birth.

Transgender people likes to act and live their life and also appear as the opposite gender, they are sure that their gender is not what it was assigned after the birth, it’s the opposite.

(TRANSGENDER PRIDE FLAG)

 5.      TRANSSEXUAL

A lot of times people think that transgender are the people who get their sex organs changed medically. But those people are ‘Transsexual’. Yes, Transsexuals are the people who have transitioned to the gender with which they want to get identified, with the help of Medical surgeries. Initially the transsexual is also the transgender but after they change their gender medically, they are called transsexuals.

(TRANSSEXUAL PRIDE FLAG)

6.      QUEER

People also refer to the gay and lesbian people as queer. But that’s not what the real meaning is. Queer is anyone who is not heterosexual, or outside the heterosexual norm. It’s just queer don’t want to label themselves as gay or bisexual because they don’t want a tag according to their sexual acts.

 

(QUEER PRIDE FLAG)

7.      QUESTIONING

People who are still exploring their gender and their sexual orientation while neglecting their gender assigned at birth. At this point, people are not sure with their gender identities.

(Questioning Pride flag)

 8.      INTERSEX

People who have both male and female biological characteristics, that is, some people have both the female and male sex organs like, some males have their sex organs which denotes that they are men but at the same time they have vagina or uterus or their chromosome pattern is not of a male but of a female.

Ally people are the people who are not actually the part of the LGBTQ+ Community but they are there to support them. So basically, every one of us who are supporting the community falls under this category.

(ALLY PRIDE FLAG)

10.  ASEXUAL

Now, it’s not important that every person is sexually attracted to a person. In fact there are people who don’t get sexually attracted to anyone regardless the gender. People find it sometimes hard to believe, but yes ‘Asexual’ people never get sexually attracted to a person. But this doesn’t mean that they can never get into a relationship, they do. They get attracted by the personality of humans, but they don’t want to get into a sexual act with anyone.

(ASEXUAL PRIDE FLAG)

 11.  PANSEXUAL

People who are both sexually and romantically attracted to a person’s personality and not their gender and identity. So in simple words, pansexual people are attracted to any person regardless of gender, sexual orientation and identity. People often get confused over Bisexual and Pansexual but the difference is Bisexual people gets attracted to only male and female, whereas Pansexual people can be attracted to anyone, like, Male, Female, Transgender, Transsexual, intersex, queer, non binary, etc. Like Asexual people Pansexual people also get attracted to the personality, where asexual never gets sexually attracted and pansexual can get attracted sexually.

(PANSEXUAL PRIDE FLAG)

So, that was it. These were the people who fall under the LGBTTQQIAAP. But this doesn’t mean that LGBTQ+ ends here. There are many other types of sexual orientations which may not fall under the LGBTTQQIAAP but they are there, for example, ‘Curious, Gender non conforming, Gender-fluid, Non-binary, Androgynous, Aromantic, Demisexual, Sapiosexual and many other’. These people may not fall under the LGBTTQQIAAP but they still are the part of LGBTQ+ Community, because as said everyone is welcomed to be a part of the community.

By: Vaishnavi Singh 
(3rd Year Law Student From Indore Institute of Law )