LGBT+ is an “inclusive” way to represent all the different identities in the longer acronym but here’s a breakdown of what each of the letters in LGBTQQIAAP mean.
|
Letter |
Name |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
L |
lesbian |
a woman who is attracted to another women |
|
G |
gay |
a man who is attracted to other men (or more broadly people who identify as homosexual) |
|
B |
bisexual |
a person who is attracted to both men and women |
|
T |
transexual |
a person whose gender identity is different from the sex the doctor put down on their birth certificate |
|
Q |
queer |
originally used as a hate term, some people want to reclaim the word, while others find it offensive. It can be a political statement, suggest that someone doesn’t want to identify with “binaries” (e.g. male v female, homosexual v straight) or that they don’t want to label themselves only by their sexual activity |
|
Q |
questioning |
a person who is still exploring their sexuality or gender identity |
|
I |
intersex |
a person whose body is not definitively male or female. This may be because they have chromosomes which are not XX or XY or because their genitals or reproductive organs are not considered “standard” |
|
A |
allies |
a person who identifies as straight but supports people in the LGBTQQIAAP community |
|
A |
asexual |
a person who is not attracted in a sexual way to people of any gender |
|
P |
pansexual |
a person whose sexual attraction is not based on gender and may themselves be fluid when it comes to gender or sexual identity |