What is sexuality? We all have a general idea of what sexuality means when mentioned I know my thoughts first jump to terms such as bisexual, gay, and lesbian if someone asked me to define the term sexuality. But to summarise, sexuality also known as sexual orientation refers to your sexual feelings, thoughts, attractions and behaviours towards other people or a lack thereof.
After the Stonewall Riots in 1969, where the neighbourhood residents, patrons and staff rioting on Christopher Street after the police raided the Stonewall Inn a gay club in New York on June 28th. Becoming a part of the reason why Pride Month is celebrated every June, in the fight for gay rights and which later became the foundations for the LGBTQIA+ movement and community we see today. since this there has been many improvement such as how in 2013, UK Parliament passed the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act which introduced civil marriage for same-sex couples in England and Wales, a long overdue milestone for gay rights. Furthermore, with there is a growing acceptance as LGBTQIA+ is showed more in the media with an increase in TV shows and programmes. However, while younger generations are believed to be more accepting of non-binary individuals there is still room for improvement with concepts such as gender fluidity taking longer to reach the mainstream consciousness.
Well-known Sexual Orientations
· Heterosexual/“Straight”: People who identify as straight are attracted to people with the “opposite” gender, for example a man being attracted to a woman and vice versa.
· Homosexual/Gay/Lesbian: Identifying as homosexual means being attracted to people with the same gender as yourself.
· Bisexual: This is a very individual sexual orientation; it doesn’t mean the same thing for everyone. Traditionally bisexuality was a sexual attraction to both men and women, but the community is generally moving away from this definition. But more recently many bisexual people have defined the two as referring to their own gender and other genders.
· Pansexual: people who identify as pansexual are sexually attracted to any and all genders. Pansexuals may be sexually attracted to the same genders as some bisexual people, it is a personal preference which label is used.
Lesser-known Sexual Orientations
While it’s been a while since attending secondary school and a lot of the time, I spent during secondary school was a blur of teenage drama and exam stress. But if there’s one thing, I do remember is that a lot of my own knowledge of the LGBTQIA+ came from my friends who were a part of it and helped introduce and explain the terms to me that weren’t apart of the well-known. Some of which are included in the list below:
· Autosexual: Sexual attraction to oneself and/or preference for only engaging in sexual activities alone.
· Heteroflexible/Homoflexible: Sexual attraction that fits with heterosexuality/homosexuality primarily, but with occasional sexual attraction that is inconsistent with heterosexuality/homosexuality.
· Skoliosexual: Sexual attraction to people who are not cisgender, i.e., trans and non-binary people.
· Aromantic: A person who identifies as such may not feel any romantic attraction toward anyone. They may not want a relationship beyond friendship.
· Asexual: An umbrella term that encompasses a broad spectrum of sexual orientations where some people may experience no sexual or romantic attraction toward anyone, while others may experience varying degrees of sexual or romantic attraction toward people.
· Demiromantic: Where people usually do not feel romantic attraction toward people with whom they do not have a strong emotional bond.
· Demisexual: A person who identifies as this typically only feels sexual attraction toward a person with whom they have already established a strong emotional bond.
Why should you care?
Whether you identify with one or multiple of these terms it’s important to have some awareness of what these terms mean not only for yourself as it helps when trying to understand that its not only just you who may experience this. But also for friends and family who identify with them in order be educated and understanding if they ever wish to talk about with you.
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