Fri Dec 27 2024

Choose your adjective.

My communication is in English words so I can look up word meanings in wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/)  and there I find the word disambiguation used, which means the process of identifying which sense of a word is meant in a sentence or other segment of context. In human language processing and cognition, it is usually subconscious.

For example, the word gay originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy’ but now is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The meaning of the word changed over time to refer to prostitutes, men who visit prostitutes, unattached men free of responsibilities, male prostitutes and to homosexual men. 

At times it referred to homosexual female although in 20th century the word lesbian  became the acceptable term and the word gay generally applies to males.

In most periods of history homosexuality was not regarded as acceptable and even illegal but society has changed to include other attractions, inclinations, practices such as bisexuality (a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, to more than one gender, or to both people of the same gender and different genders) and pansexuality (sexual, romantic, or emotional attraction towards people of all genders, or regardless of their sex or gender identity.[1][2] Pansexual people may refer to themselves as gender-blind) although pansexual people might assert that gender and sex are not determining factors in their romantic or sexual attraction to others.

Transgender does not have a universally accepted definition, including among researchers; it can function as an umbrella term. One definition may be A transgender (often shortened to trans) person is someone whose gender identity differs from that typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth.

This is distinguished from A transsexual person is someone who experiences a gender identity that is inconsistent with their assigned sex, and desires to permanently transition to the sex or gender with which they identify, usually seeking medical assistance (including gender affirming therapies).

Less than 0.05% of people are born with sex characteristics that do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies and may be called Intersex.

The word cisgender (often shortened to cis; sometimes cissexual) describes a person whose gender identity corresponds to their sex assigned at birth. While intended to be a positive descriptor to distinguish between trans and non-trans identity, the term has been met with criticisms in more recent years, describing it as "clunky, unhelpful and maybe even regressive" and saying it "‍creates – or re-creates – a gender binary”. Most cultures use a gender binary, having two genders (boys/men and girls/women).

Some have used the words "cis" and "cisgender"as "targeted harassment" and as pejoratives and as being "heterophobic" and a "heterosexual slur”. The term generally implies a straight or heterosexual person.

To some people, including those listed above, this idea of a gender as a binary is thought to be an oppressive means of reflecting differential power dynamics and some deny binary genders as a reality.

As part of this some nouns, honorific titles and pronouns that identify a binary gender are objectionable to some people. For example, boy, actress, Miss, her. Replacements include they, Ms.

People who align with one or more of the above tend to regard themselves as a group identified as LGBTQI and as people add terms to this list rather than lengthen it is commonly simpler to use the label LGBTQI+ as an inclusive term.

Queer is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or are not cisgender. Originally meaning 'strange' or 'peculiar', queer came to be used pejoratively against LGBT people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to reclaim the word as a neutral or positive self-description. Reclamation and use of the term queer is controversial; several people and organizations, both LGBT and non-LGBT, object to some or all uses of the word for various reasons.


1934 Modified: 20-01-2025
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