Kobolds with a keyboard.

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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 5th, 2023

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  • Firstly, I think you’re conflating gender with sexual identity. Gender isn’t covered by any of the LGBTQIA2+ initials; it’s important (to some people) to inform someone of upon meeting them, because it usually relates to their preferred pronouns, and if someone appears outwardly male but prefers to be referred to as ‘They’ (or any other combination of gender + pronoun), that needs to be disclosed. You’ve probably never felt the need to do this because (as you state) you’re male and you identify as male and your outward appearance is male, so I’m going to assume you’ve never had anyone misgender you, but not everyone is so lucky - or privileged, you might say.

    But this gave me the thought, that why do we not use the same pronouns for everyone (for example they/them), or maybe 2 pairs, one for formal, one informal, or 1 more pair, for singular and plural. Why do pronouns have to depend on gender?

    This is just how the English language works. Personally, I’ve never met anyone who got upset if someone used a gender neutral pronoun (though I understand those people do exist). If you want to make it easy on yourself, just use They/Them for everyone; English just happens to not be too well-equipped for this, and it can cause confusion in some contexts (singular vs. plural, or when trying to single a particular person out of a crowd). Some of the other pronouns that you’ve probably heard were an attempt to create a singular gender neutral pronoun but none have really stuck in wide use.

    The second part is sexual prefernces. I do not know much about sex or sexual preferences. I am a young adult, and have not had to know about this for any person that I have met yet. I have never had the interest to know about this for someone, neither have I retained this information.

    This is likely because you’re ace. If you had a sexual interest in someone, you might be interested to know what gender they preferred.

    I understand that if you are looking out for partner/s, then you would have to share this, so we would have to use some words for it. But why do we have to keep this as a part of gender.

    We don’t. This is separate from gender. The only letters in the LGBTQIA2+ acronym that relates to gender is T, for Trans, and I for Intersex, but generally speaking trans people (who I’ve met, anyway) would prefer to just be known by their preferred gender in casual conversation, and intersex people don’t typically advertise that, either (nor should they need to).

    As in, why would I want to share this information with my governments (who do census), or for my visa applications. Should this not just be something personal?

    You don’t have to disclose sexual preference for either of those things, at least not where I’m from.

    If a person tells me their gender, how should I react/respond to it? Is my current line of actions appropriate (just address them with their preferd pronouns, and if I do not know that, use they/them; completely ignore the sexual part of it)

    You say “Okay”, and refer to them by their preferred pronoun; it’s essentially the only reason it would come up in casual conversation. Again, there’s nothing sexual about gender. Gender and sexual identity are completely separate.

    Another thing that I want to ask is, why do some groups use different acronyms? I remeber hearing about this the first time, and the word used was LGBT. Then I heard LGBTQ, then LGBTQIA+, and today I heard LGBTQ2. I presume that since more people are getting aware, and they are trying to express themselves, they need some newer words, and hence the acronym would keep on evolving, if so, is it not a endless exercise? Am I being insensitive If I use one over other (for quite some time, I have been sticking with lgbtqia+, in hope that + means extensions, as in, others, so hopefully it is less excluding than others, but if that is not the case, please correct me.)

    Over time, the acronym has evolved to be inclusive of more groups. That’s all there is to it. As an asexual person, you’re represented by the A (or the +). I have only a few times ever seen a shorter acronym used to specifically exclude some groups, and that shit was shut down pretty quickly by other folks who heard it. If you say “LGBTQIA+”, I highly doubt anyone will be offended or feel that you’re excluding them. (The + is indeed a general addendum meant to include anyone who is part of the community and wasn’t explicitly given a letter.)