I noticed that Discord only has two pride emojis (gay and trans) so I let members of my server request for flags that they wanted made!
Rather than just putting random images of flags as the emojis, I tried to make them look as close as possible to the actual discord ones (rounded edges and relatively the same size)
These are transparent pngs if anyone wants to download them for their own server! I hope you enjoy them ^^
Let’s start with the basics, what do each of the letters stand for?
L - Lesbian G - Gay B - Bisexual T - Transgender Q - Queer/Questioning I - Intersex A - Asexual + - To include any and all identities not named above
What started as just LGBT has grown to encompass a much wider range of identities. Just as language shifts, the encapsulating “label” for the community changes.
Some folx favor referencing the community as “the queer community”, although that can sometimes cause problems. In the past, “queer” as been a term of ridicule and used as a slur, so many people worry that it’s not a proper label to use. I, personally, use it as a self-identifier because it’s easier than going through the motions of talking about how the boxes of sexuality and gender don’t always feel right, and how I’m bisexual but in a straight-passing relationship, and on and on. You’ll see me refer to the LGBTQIA+ community as the queer community in future posts as I believe it’s a wonderful umbrella term and feel good about reclaiming a word that has once held such vitriol. Some people also believe using the acronym for the community is ousting for the identities that aren’t mentioned, and using queer involves everyone regardless of their identity.
So! With that, let’s look just a bit deeper into some of the identities of the queer community. I’ll have another post going even deeper into what they mean individually, but this will be a sort of overview for the time being. (All of these definitions come directly from the Glossary of LGBTQIA+ Terms put together by The Pride Center for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity at Lehigh University.)
Aromantic – Person who experiences little or no romantic attraction to others. Also known as Aro.
Asexual – Person who does not experience sexual attraction. They may or may not experience emotional, physical, and/or romantic attraction. Asexuality differs from celibacy in that it is a sexual orientation, not a choice. Also known as Ace.
Bisexual – A person who experiences sexual, romantic, physical, and/or spiritual attraction to people of their own gender as well as other genders, not necessarily at the same time, in the same way, or to the same degree. Also known as Bi.
Cisgender – someone who feels comfortable with the gender identity assigned to them based on their physical sex. Also known as Cis.
Demisexual – A person who does not experience sexual attraction unless they form a strong emotional connection with someone. It’s more commonly seen in but by no means confined to romantic relationships. Is under the umbrella of Asexuality.
Gay – 1. Used in some cultural settings to represent men who are exclusively or primarily attracted to other men in a romantic, erotic and/or emotional sense. 2. A general term for gay men and lesbians.
Heterosexual – A medical definition for a person who is primarily or exclusively attracted to those of a different sex or gender. Also known as straight.
Homophobia – Direct negative attitudes toward and unfair treatment of people who identify or are perceived as nonheterosexual, including the fear of being read as part of the LGBT community. Homophobic behavior can range from telling gay jokes, to verbal abuse, to acts of physical violence.
Intersex – Individual(s) born with the condition of having physical sex markers (genitals, hormones, gonads, or chromosomes) that are neither clearly male nor female. Intersex people are sometimes defined as having “ambiguous” genitalia.
Lesbian – Term used to describe women who are exclusively or primarily attracted to other women in a romantic, erotic, and/or emotional sense.
Non-Binary – A gender identity which doesn’t fit in the “traditional” gender binary of “man” or “woman”. Someone who is non-binary feels that their gender doesn’t fit a strictly “male” or “female” definition, and there are many expressions of non-binary identities. Also known as enby. I will have a whole post on gender expression, and thank you to @colerambles for pointing out that I left this out originally!
Pansexual – A person who has the potential to experience sexual, romantic, physical, and/or spiritual attraction for members of all gender identities/expressions.
Queer – 1. An umbrella term which includes lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, trans* people, intersex persons, radical sex communities, and many other sexually transgressive communities. 2. This term is sometimes used as a sexual orientation label or gender identity label used to denote a nonheterosexual or cisgender identity without having to define specifics. 3. A reclaimed word that was formerly used solely as a slur but that has been reclaimed by some folks in the LGBTQ community. Nevertheless, a sizable percentage of people to whom this term might apply still hold “queer‟ to be a hateful insult.
Questioning – An individual who is unsure of and/or exploring their gender identity and/or sexual orientation.
Transgender – A person who identifies with a gender other than the gender they were assigned at birth. Sexual orientation varies and is not dependent on gender identity.
Trans*– An abbreviation that is used to refer to a transgender/gender queer/ gender nonconforming person. This use allows a person to state a gender variant identity without having to disclose hormonal or surgical status/intentions. This term is sometimes used to refer to the whole gender nonconforming community that might include (but is not limited to) transgender, genderqueer, gender fluid, nonbinary, genderf*ck, transsexual, agender, third gender, twospirit, bigender, trans man, trans woman, gender nonconforming, trans masculine, trans feminine, and gender questioning.
As an addition, please remember that these definitions are always changing. For example, another shoutout to @colerambles for sharing that her enby teen and their best friend define lesbian as “non-man loving non-man” and gay as “non-woman loving non-woman”. Language and humanity is so beautiful in this way, that our understanding of things can get better when we all put our heads together and share.
There are so many more identities that I’m very excited to share with you! As always, asks are open and I’m happy to answer questions as best I can!
Today’s resource is PFLAG! PFLAG originally stood for Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, but the organization now just goes by PFLAG. According to their website, “Our mission is to build on a foundation of loving families united with LGBTQ+ people and allies who support one another, and to educate ourselves and our communities to speak up as advocates until all hearts and minds respect, value and affirm LGBTQ people.”
This is a wonderful resource for families to be better allies to their queer family members. Love and support are crucial for the wellbeing of folx in the LGBTQIA+ community. Learn more from their advocacy tools here and get support here.
Brandon Roger Cinematic Universe: Brandon Rogers is a YouTuber who makes these comedy skit videos. By Brandon Rogers Cinematic Universe I mean the universe most of his videos take place in as you could guess. Basically his videos revolve around these really messed up characters who do some really messed up stuff. Characters that are LGBTQ include at least Dorian, Sam, Bobby Worst and Cathy I’m pretty sure. But these videos have a lot of slurs and dark humor (though done in a very good way imo.) Brandon himself is gay which makes me feel a lot better about his jokes. Also he’s the guy in the “Move, I’m gay!” video by the way.
All Hail King Julien: Believe it or not this kids’ show about King Julien from the Madagascar movies is probably one of the sickest shows I’ve watched. You know Mort the little demon rat? He is truly messed up in this one. Anyways, this is a kids’ show so none of the characters are explicitly stated to be LGBTQ but most if not all characters seem to be bisexual. Mort has… some sort of feeling towards Julian, Ted seems to have a crush on him, and generally none of the charcters really seem to care about gender at all. The show also has surprisingly good commentary on stuff like child beauty pageants, guns, classism, politics, excessive plastic surgeries etc. But yeah, it’s a messed up show, definitely look up the content warnings from somewhere.
The Rules of Attraction: In an earlier post I mentioned The Secret History and this book is fairly similar. Also fun fact: Apparentky the authors (Bret Easton Ellis and Donna Tartt) knew each other ik college and both of the books have references to the other. ANYWAYS, this book has one bisexual male main character (who’s an awful human being) and another main character who might be bi, deoending on which character’s story you believe. He is also a horrible person. The book is also full of slurs but it takes place in the 80s and was written by a queer man, so I guess it’s fair. But yeah, please look up content warnings from somewhere, because this is a messed up book. There’s also a movie of this taht I’ve heard is good but haven’t seen.
Magnus Chase: Okay, so I have some complicated feelings about this book series. This book series is written by the author of Percy Jacksons and I’m not a fan of those. I read Magnus Chases when I was 12-ish and I wholeheartedly enjoyed them. But now I can’t read them anymore because it has some really odd stuff in it related to Norse mythology. But if you like Percy Jacksons you’ll definitely like these too. Basically the main character is Magnus Chase and he’s a homeless teenage boy who straight up dies in the beginning. He ends up in Valhalla and shenanigans ensue. Not to spoil too much but the main character is pansexual and in the second and third book there’s a main character who is genderfluid. Also Loki is there who is also genderfluid. So it has really good LGBTQ+ representation, commentary on how badly homeless people are treated etc. A lot of good stuff but some not so good stuff too.
SpongeBob Squarepants: Ok, this is kind of a stretch cause it’s never acknowledged in-universe but according to the creator SpongeBob is asexual so it counts.
I’m not gonna lie. I’m a slut for a microlabel. I switch them round so fast people can barely keep up with me. At this point I just use umbrella terms cause I change my specifics so frequently
