Queer is an umbrella term for sexual and gender minorities who are not heterosexual or are not cisgender. Beginning in the late 1980s,
queer activists, such as the members of
Queer Nation, began to reclaim the word as a deliberately provocative and politically
radical alternative to the more assimilationist branches of the
LGBT community. In the 21st century,
queer became increasingly used to describe a broad spectrum of non-normative sexual and gender identities and politics. Academic disciplines such as
queer theory and
queer studies share a general opposition to binarism, normativity, and a perceived lack of
intersectionality, some of them only tangentially connected to the
LGBT… Read more movement.
Queer arts,
queer cultural groups, and
queer political groups are examples of modern expressions of
queer identities.
Non-binary or genderqueer is an umbrella term for gender identities that are neither male nor female?, which means identities that are outside the gender binary. Non-binary identities fall under the
transgender umbrella since non-binary people typically identify with a gender that is
different from their assigned sex, though some non-binary individuals do not consider themselves
transgender. Non-binary people may identify as having two or more genders (being bigender or trigender), or having no gender (agender, nongendered, genderless, genderfree), or having a fluctuating gender identity (genderfluid), or being third gender or other-gendered (a category that includes those who do not
… Read more place a name to their gender). Gender identity is separate from sexual or romantic orientation, and non-binary people have a variety of sexual orientations, just as cisgender people do.
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Agender people, also called genderless, gender-free, non-gendered, or ungendered, are those who identify as having no gender or being without a gender identity.
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Bi-gender, or dual gender is a gender identity that includes any two gender identities and behaviors. Identifying as bigender is typically understood to mean that one identifies as both male and female or moves between masculine gender expression and feminine gender expression, having two distinct gender identities simultaneously or fluctuating between them.
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Demigender is a gender identity of a person identifying partially or mostly with one gender and at the same time with another gender.
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Genderfluid people often express a desire to remain flexible about their gender identity rather than committing to a single
definition. They may fluctuate among
different gender expressions over their lifetime, or express multiple aspects of various gender markers at the same time.
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Transfeminine and transmasculine may be used by individuals to describe an aspect of femininity or masculinity within their identity. Transfeminine may be used by individuals who were assigned male at birth but align more closely with femininity, while not necessarily fully identifying as a woman.
LGBTQ an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, and
queer. It functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. It may refer to anyone who is non-heterosexual or non-cisgender, instead of exclusively to people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or
transgender. Other common variants also exist, such as
LGBTQIA+, with the I standing for "intersex" and A standing for "asexual" or "aromantic". Longer acronyms also exists, such as LGBTTQQIAAP (lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, transsexual,
queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, ally, pansexual). Various flags represent specific identities within the
LGBT movement, from sexual or romantic orientations,
… Read more to gender identities or expressions, to sexual characteristics.
Anarcha-
feminism combines
anarchism with
feminism. Anarcha-
feminism generally posits that
patriarchy and traditional
gender roles as manifestations of involuntary coercive
hierarchy should be replaced by decentralized free association. Anarcha-feminists believe that the struggle against
patriarchy is an essential part of class
conflict and the anarchist struggle against the state and capitalism. In essence, the philosophy sees anarchist struggle as a necessary component of
feminist struggle and vice versa. L. Susan Brown claims that "as
anarchism is a political philosophy that opposes all relationships of power, it is inherently
feminist". Anarcha-
feminism is an anti-authoritarian,
… Read more anti-capitalist, anti-oppressive philosophy, with the goal of creating an "equal ground" between the genders. Anarcha-
feminism suggests the social
freedom and liberty of women without needed dependence upon other groups or parties. Anarcha-
feminism began with late 19th and early 20th century authors and theorists such as anarchist feminists
Emma Goldman,
Voltairine de Cleyre, Milly Witkop,
Lucía Sánchez Saornil, and Lucy Parsons. In the Spanish Civil
War, an anarcha-
feminist group,
Mujeres Libres ("Free Women"), linked to the Federación Anarquista Ibérica, organized to defend both anarchist and
feminist ideas.