My Gender Identity: How Do I Identify?

I talk a lot on here talking about all different gender identities and sexualities, but I've never actually taken the time to address how I identify.

My gender identity is genderfluid. This means that my gender fluctuates between different identities.

What most people don't realize is that gender is a spectrum. At birth, people are assigned male, female, or intersex based on their genitals. But this is simply their sex assigned at birth, and does not necessarily have anything to do with their gender identity. Rather, gender identity is all based on how a person feels.

Photo Credit: HopeIntercultural

Going back to the spectrum I mentioned earlier, you can see that there is plenty of room between the "guy" and "girl" gender markers on either side. This leaves room for a whole mess of gender identities that can lie in between. Some people identify as just one point on the spectrum, wherever that may be. But others, like me, can lie at two or more points on the spectrum and fluctuate in between them.

Everyone experiences gender differently, so the rest of this explanation is just how I feel about my own gender identity. It is in no way a definitive answer to how all genderfluid people identify.

For me, my dominant gender identity will always be as a boy. I feel like a boy most of the time; and even when I don't feel 100% like a boy there is still a part of my brain that holds on to my masculine identity. 

However, as I said - my gender identity fluctuates between different points. So yes, most of the time I identify as a boy. But other times I identify as a girl, or gender neutral/neutrois, or bigender, or agender.

My preference for pronouns is always they/them/their. However, I am also very comfortable with male pronouns like he/him/his at almost any time. Sometimes when I am feeling more feminine I am okay with she/her/hers pronouns, but that is so rare I almost never bring it up. 

(And for the record, I wear necklaces just about every day with my pronouns for the day on them. But if I'm not wearing them, it is ALWAYS okay to ask me!)

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Gender Identity: A person's personal perception of their own gender

Sexuality: A person's sexual orientation, preference, or capacity for sexual feelings

Genderfluid: Someone whose gender identity fluctuates between two or more identities.

Intersex: Someone who is born with sexual anatomy that does not fit within one label of male or female.

Assigned Sex at Birth: The sex you are declared at birth based on your genitals

Gender Neutral/Neutrois: Applicable to any or all genders

Bigender: Someone whose gender identity switches between two fixed identities.

Agender: Someone who does not have a gender identity.

Nobody's Perfect...

Photo Credit: Allmyroads

I've realized now as I've gone back through some of my old posts that there are a few places where I have messed up or said some things that are not politically correct. Yes, it's true - I don't know everything (regardless of what my mother thinks).

 One of my favorite things about the ever growing knowledge of gender identity and sexuality is that people are always finding better ways to include everyone and better ways to define things. I actually really like finding out new or more appropriate ways to talk about these things. I think that with knowledge comes power, and the better we get at talking about these topics appropriately the better the community gets. So, with that being said - here's some corrections, and some revisions to terms that I will be sticking with from now on:

LGBTQA+ is now being written as LGBTQIA+, with the added I to include intersex. Also, there were a few posts in the beginning where I failed to note that the Q stands for both questioning and queer. I have since corrected it, but I thought I should bring attention to it anyways.

I have always been on the side that the term 'biological sex' is not offensive, but an article I recently found online (which I am now having trouble tracking down, but I will edit/add in here when I find it) proved me otherwise. From now on, I will be using the term 'sex assigned at birth' instead, or AMAB and AFAB.

^ Which also tweaks the definition of transgender that I have been using on here. From now on, I will be defining the word transgender as "someone whose gender identity does not align with the sex they were assigned at birth".

^ This also changes my definition of cisgender to "someone whose gender identity does align with their sex assigned at birth".

The definition I've been using for sexuality is also changing. This article I stumbled across made a very good point about why the term 'sexual preference' is politically incorrect. So, out with that phrase - and now the definition for these words will simply be "A person's sexual orientation or capacity for sexual feelings.

I'm also changing my definition for genderfluid, as I feel like the original one I came up with just didn't seem right. And of course I want to do my own label justice. From now on, my definition for genderfluid will be "someone whose gender identity fluctuates between two or more points on the gender identity spectrum".

Also, this one's not specifically LGBTQAI+ related, but in past posts I have used the term "trigger warning" to express that what I'm posting may be triggering to some people. I have since learned that the term "trigger warning" is no longer deemed appropriate, and that "content warning" is the more appropriate term. So I will be using that term from this point on if I ever need to again, and will be tagging all needed information with 'cw' instead of 'tw'.
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Gender Identity: A person's personal perception of their own gender

LGBTQIA+: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, plus

Intersex: Someone who is born with sexual anatomy that does not fit within one label of male or female.

Questioning: Someone who is unsure of their sexuality or gender identity

Queer: An in-group term sometimes used to refer to the entire LGBTQIA+ community, or certain people within the community who define themselves that way

AMAB: Assigned Male at Birth; someone who is born with male sexual anatomy and was originally assigned that label at birth

AFAB: Assigned Female at Birth; someone who is born with female sexual anatomy and was originally assigned that label at birth