During the Pride Parade week in Toronto this year, I saw various acronyms, and basically all of them are shorter variations of this one: LGBTTIQQ2S. LGBTTIQQ2S includes all the people with the following sexual orientations or inclinations that the Pride Parade embraces:
- Lesbian: a woman whose sexual orientation is towards women.
- Gay: a man whose sexual orientation is towards men. This term can also be used generally to mean to be sexually attracted to people of the same gender, thus including lesbians.
- Bisexual: a person whose sexual orientation is towards both men and women.
- Transgender: a person who is self-aware of not being the gender of what appears to be on the outside. For example, someone with male gender but always thinks that he should be a woman. In other words, a “a woman trapped in a man’s body.”
- Transsexual: a subgroup within the transgender group. Someone who is a transgender but takes action to bring them closer to who they think they are. For example, someone with male gender, but who always thinks that he should be a woman, has already undergone (or at least intends to undergo) hormonal and/or physical treatment to make him a woman.
- Intersex: someone who is born with biological characteristics of both male and female genders.
- Queer: an umbrella term referring to the LGBTTQQ2S community.
- Questioning: someone who is unsure of, or trying to determine their sexual orientation.
- 2-Spririted: a native term referring to people who fulfill a both gender roles within their community, but not specifically a state of sexuality.
As my previous blog says, soon incesters will have to be added to the list, and LGBTTIQQ2S will become LGBTTIQQ2SI.
