Why not just say “gay”? Your handy guide to decoding LGBT+

Many thanks to awesome Ffriend Will Cheval Jr. for help with this post!

No, “LGBT” isn’t a special Morse Code signal; it’s a way to “simplify” the types of folks included in the gay, or LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi, and trans), community. (With that many letters, could have fooled us too.) But these labels are important to a lot of folks, so it’s worth a little research to understand the answer to the question, “What is LGBT?”

It probably seems a lot simpler to just refer to all our non-hetero friends as “gay” and be done with it. So why are lots of folks insistent on a different, particular term? As your friend navigates their new identity of “not straight,” they’re going to find a lot of different communities, identities, and ideas. It’s going to be hard, and settling on a label they’re comfortable with is a part of figuring out who they are, and sharing it with others.

And now, the terms: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, and Ally.

• Gay is the typically used term to identify both guys and gals who are sexually attracted to someone of the same gender.
• Lesbian, on the other hand, refers only to women who are attracted to other women.
• Bisexual means a person is attracted to both men and women. No, it doesn’t mean your bi friend is constantly involved in torrid 3-ways and orgies, or that they can’t settle down permanently with one dude or lady. Just that they’re attracted to both sexes. Read the rest of this entry »

Dancing with the Stars will feature Cher’s transgender son, Chaz Bono

Dancing With the Stars announced the cast of the lucky 13th season of their “too juicy not to watch” competitive cha-cha program last night! There are plenty of folks to get excited about (my girlfriend insists that Ronnie Artest is a Very Important Athlete about whom I should care), including the ever-provacative personalities Nancy Grace and Ricki Lake. With or without justification, your lesbian friends will likely tune in to catch the U.S. women’s soccer team captain and dreamy goalie Hope Solo*. But in what is probably the most surprising, Chaz Bono will join the troop of two-steppers, bringing his trans activism to perhaps its biggest stage yet.

The big cast reveal (so very worth your seven minutes):

Best sound-bite after the jump!

Read the rest of this entry »