Celebrating Pride and what it means...

Celebrating Pride month is all about sharing a mutual respect for every person’s sexual orientation gender identity expression or SOGIE for short. Supporting them in feeling proud and safe being who they are.

If you’re just opening up your mind and heart to supporting our LGBTQ+ community members here is a short breakdown:

• Lesbian: Homosexual woman

• Gay: Homosexual person (usually a man, but sometimes lesbians use the term ‘gay’ to describe themselves, so this tends to be a more broad term)

• Bisexual: Someone who is attracted to both sexes

• Transgender: Someone who has a different gender identity than the sex they were born as

• Queer: An umbrella term for anyone who falls on the LGBTQ spectrum. ‘Queer’ is purposefully vague and ambiguous, providing a sense of community instead of focusing on a specific label or orientation (lesbian, bisexual, etc.).

• Questioning: A term used to describe those who are exploring what their gender, sexual identity, and sexual orientation are.

It’s important to note that these are not the only gender orientations and sexual identities that fall under the LGBTQ umbrella. This acronym continues to evolve over time to include people who identify themselves as pansexual (people who are attracted to all gender identities), gender-neutral (people who do not like to be identified as a particular gender), and asexual (people who experience little to no sexual attraction). Again, this is not an exhaustive list, but helps explain that there are many different ways people identify their gender and sexual orientation.

One more thing, YES pronouns do matter.

If you are unsure or are having a hard time use their name. Sharing your pronouns is a simple way to create space for others to do the same. Besides, judging a book by it’s cover is never a good look.