Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code was scrapped on September 6, 2018, one year on and some things have changed for the better, but a lot of them haven’t. One of them being inclusivity. Most of us are not familiar with the queer community and the entire spectrum of genders and sexualities that are a part of it, let alone how to address them. So, this week on Scratching The Surface, we took a trip back to school, to study the ABCDs of the LGBTQIA+ Community.
LGBTQIA+
What does it stand for?
Lesbian – women who are sexually/emotionally attracted to women
Gay – men who are sexually/emotionally attracted to men
Bisexual – Men/women who are sexually/emotionally attracted to both men and women,
Transgender – men/women who identify with a gender that’s opposite to the one assigned to them at birth.
With time, the shorthand LGBT grew to include more diverse sexualities such as:
Questioning – someone who is still exploring their gender or sexuality.
Intersex – refers to people whose reproductive or sexual anatomy differs from what is traditionally defined as male or female. They might have XX chromosomes or XY chromosomes, ambiguous genitalia or not, and may know at birth that they’re intersex, or find out later.
Asexual – When you aren’t sexually attracted to people, you’re asexual. Asexual people can be in romantic relationships and experience attraction—but it may not be realised through sex.
The ‘+’ denotes all other identities that fall into the queer umbrella.
Gender
Gender has evolved to include a wide spectrum of identities.
- A Cisgendered person is someone whose gender identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth.
- Gender Binaries is the belief that there are only two genders, male or female. Anything beyond these is considered out of syllabus.
- Being tied down to these binaries can create Gender dysphoria, a conflict between a person’s physical gender and the gender with which they identify.
- Transgender, the T in LGBT, are people who can change various aspects of themselves to align with the gender they know themselves to be. This is called transitioning, and it could be social, legal, or medical – like changing their appearance, name, pronouns, or their physical body. The medical step taken towards this is known as sex reassignment surgery.
The Queer community often faces derogatory and hateful statements by society on the daily, we tend to fear what we don’t understand and that reflects how we act in our lives. With this video we aim to educate our audiences about the different terms of the queer community and their usage and spread the idea of inclusivity—everyone is beautiful and all deserve to love and be loved!
Watch the full video here.