Episode One: Queer Language Transcript

The video

Hello and welcome!

This is the first video in a hopefully long series of content about queer people of history. But first, it’s important to get down some logistics. Like language for example.

I just used the word ‘queer’ and that may have some varying connotations for different people. It can be seen positive, as it has a history of being a word the LGBT+ community has used before the acronym to mean everyone in the community, transgender people, gay people, lesbians, you get the idea.

Even more recently, people have been using the word queer again as an easier, faster, catchall term for the LGBT+ community as well as for those who don’t identify with any of the language I’m about to go over.

However, it can also have some negative connotations. After it was coined for and by the LGBT+ community, it was used as a slur by those not in the community for a long time, long enough for it to leave mental scars for some people, especially older LGBT+ people.

I am using it, however, because there has been quite a bit of work done to reclaim this word since it’s history resides within the community as a positive thing.

Now, I’ve used the acronym LGBT+ to describe queer people. And some people may think I need to add letters to that acronym. For the sake of making speaking easier, since I’m not very good at it, I’ll stick with LGBT+ for now.

However, LGBT+ can also be seen as LGBTQIA+ and a variety of other arrangements of the letters. But the entire acronym is LGBTQQIP2SAA.

Now, that’s a lot of letters and a number. What does it all mean? Well, The LGBT part is pretty easy as it’s the most commonly seen portion of the acronym. It stands for Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. Add the plus and you can quickly surmise the rest.

Now for the second iteration. LGBTQIA+. That’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (all part of that reclaiming), intersex, and asexual. Again, the plus for simplicity sake.

Now, the full thing. LGBTQQIP2SAA. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, queer, intersex, pansexual, two spirit, androgonous, and asexual (GASP).

So I’ll be using LGBT+ and queer instead. Because it’s easier. But what I mean is that giant acronym.

Now, what do all of those things mean? I already went over queer, so that’s done.

Let’s start with the easy ones; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender.

Lesbian is two woman who love each other. Gay is two men. Easy enough.

Bisexual is someone who likes two genders (Note, not opposing, just two). Still simple.

And transgender is someone who does not identify with their birth gender (Note, not someone who identifies with the ‘opposing’ gender) and is an umbrella term for…a lot of other things like;

Demiboy

Demigirl

Genderfluid

Agender

Trans boy/man

Trans girl/woman

Androgyny (Which we’ll get to)

Bi-gender

Crossdresser

Drag King and Queen

Genderqueer

AND (GASP)

Pangender

Did I say easy? I meant, a lot. But ya know, we’ll get there.

I’ll put a link in the notes to a document that defines all of those things.

For now, let’s move on to that first q, questioning. Now, people who are questioning, are people who don’t have a place among the ‘alphabet mafia’, as we like to call ourselves in certain circles. They’re different from queer becuase they’re questioning where they belong, trying out different titles until they find one that fits while queer is not having any that fit.

Now on to, intersex. Intersex is for people who were born with a varity of different hormones, genitelia or situations that do not fit into the categories of ‘male’ and ‘female’. A lot of these people are forced into corrective surgeries when they are born or when they are young to force them into one category or another.

Pansexual is when someone has no gender preference whatsoever. Oh look, another easy one!

Two spirit people are exclusively, let me repeat exclusively, people of American indeginous heritage who fulfill a third gender or gender variant role in their society.

Androginous, while also covered under the term transgender, is when someone is of indtermated sex.

Asexual is when someone does not experience sexual attraction in the same way that others do, for example, someone could see someone they would like to have sex with while an asexual just sees a person. This does not mean that they do not experience sexual feelings.

Two final words you’ll probably hear me say a lot are ‘straight’ and ‘cisgender’. Cisgender is someone who identifies with their assigned gender at birth, so male or female. Straight means cisgendered people who identify as male and female being together. So, you know, most of the media and the ‘normal’ relationship.

Alright! That’s a lot of information and I know it’s not all clean cut and simple, especially if you do further research on it all. A lot of terms seem to cross with each other, but I promise they’re all different and important to the people who identify in those ways.

I may do a more indepth exploration into the terms not covered here at a later date, but for now, these are the terms you’re going to need to know to interact with this project!

Thank you for listening and I hope you decide to stick around and listen to more videos and check out our website at queerbiographies.com. Bye!