Hi guys! I thought it would be a good idea to go over the different sexual and romantic orientations, as well as talk about the different gender identities besides the ones that we know about presented in the LGBT+ acronym. So before we begin, let's talk about what the letters in the acronym mean, as we know them!

            As we know, the LGBT+ (the plus, more often than not, is optional) acronym stands for lesbian (female-identified persons being romantically and/or sexually attracted to other female-identified persons); gay (male-identified persons being romantically and/or sexually attracted to other male-identified persons); bisexual (commonly described as being attracted to "both genders"--more on this later!); and finally, transgender (not adhering to the gender prescribed to them at birth by the appearance of their genitals). The plus tends to represent and group together all the other orientations that are not heterosexual or cisgender. Despite these being the most "well known" orientations, these certainly aren't the only orientations.

            Note: I intend this to be a short rundown about different orientations/identities, so I won't be able to provide the large array of them, but I will certainly try and include as much as I can, and I will also provide some links to outside sources!

            First, I'd like to continue my note about bisexuality: though it's often described as being attracted to "both genders", this way of explaining it is quickly going out of style, as it implies there's only two genders, and such a thing is binarist, and ignores those who don't adhere to the gender binary. Instead, it is much less problematic to describe bisexuality as being sexually/romantically attracted to people of the same gender and other gender, as it not only includes those within the binary, but it can also those outside it. Along with bisexuality, there's also pansexuality, in which one can be romantically/sexually attracted to a person regardless of their gender. Many may argue that bi- and pansexuality are the same thing, but the difference is that a bisexual may be attracted to many genders, and a pansexual is attracted to all genders. Despite all this, many still refer to bisexuals being attracted to both men and women.

            Next, let's talk about queerness. Queer is a slur that's been reclaimed by many members of the community to ID themselves as--however, there are also members who still recognizes it's status as a slur, and abhor the use of it, and it's extremely important to keep those people in mind when using the word to describe the community as a whole. People may ID themselves as queer as an umbrella term simply meaning not heterosexual, while others use it as a way to describe that they do not conform to societies expectation of sexuality/gender/gender expression. The meaning of the word is very much up in the air as it's used, in the community, to describe many different things and different instances.

            Finally, I'm going to bundle up two often unacknowledged identities into one paragraph (hopefully!)--aromantic and genderqueer. Aromantic describes a person who doesn't regularly experience romantic desire, much in how an asexual person doesn't regularly experience sexual desire. Aromantics can still experience love, though most likely, not in a romantic sense. Meanwhile, genderqueer describes a person who identifies as something between, outside of, or other than man or woman, meaning that they're often outside, or fluctuating somewhere outside of, the gender binary. Another word for this is gender fluid, which negates the slur.

            And there we go! Mind you, this is an extremely small peek into other identities, and all of these--just like anything else regarding gender, sexuality, and romance--are all fluid. It's always important to also be respectful of others identities, and to not brush them off or disregard them, no matter how "out there" they may seem! Acceptance and understanding is always key.

Resources!

http://www.uua.org/lgbtq/identity/

http://internationalspectrum.umich.edu/life/definitions

http://www.asexuality.org/home/overview.html