So You Want to Be a Lesbian? by Liz Tracey

The term 'Lesbian' originally referred to people or things from the Greek island of Lesbos. 2.2.3 Lipstick lesbian flag and stripes.2.1.6 Lesbian-feminism and the lesbian sex wars.2.1.3 Legal challenges to lesbian literature.In the Gender Census, an annual online international survey of people who do not strictly identify with the gender binary, participants indicated their personal identifiers the item 'lesbian (partially or completely in relation to gender)' was selected by 12.9% of the participants in 2021 and 13.8% in 2022. Ĭertain lesbians have used the label to describe their gender in addition to their attractions. Depending on individual circumstances, some trans men maintain their lesbian identities and community involvement as men. As lesbian communities tend to be more accepting than straight communities of masculine and gender non-conforming people who were assigned female at birth, trans men often initially identify as lesbians before transitioning however, this does not mean that all butch or otherwise masculine lesbians are transgender. Trans women attracted to women may subsequently understand themselves as lesbian women. Based upon their assigned gender at birth and attraction to women, and prior to realizing their gender identity and transitioning, some trans women (assigned male at birth) formerly identify as straight and some trans men (assigned female at birth) as lesbian.

Lesbians may be cisgender or transgender since gender is a separate concept from sexual orientation, someone may be both trans and lesbian. Definitions also vary in whether or not they use expanded language regarding gender, such as a person who self-describes as a woman or phrasing that explicitly includes people who do not identify only as women, such as woman-aligned and some genderqueer and/or non-binary people who feel a connection to womanhood. For instance, women who self-identify as both bisexual and lesbian would not be included in a definition that specifies lesbians are only oriented toward women, but would be in a broader definition that encompasses other labels. They have variously been defined based on sexual behaviors, sexual attractions, or self-identifying with the label.

Lesbians have debated who shares their identity and is part of the lesbian community for over a century. Some prefer to use or additionally use ' gay' or 'gay woman' as an identifier. Although lesbians are frequently defined as women who are exclusively attracted to women, they have also been described as women primarily attracted to other women. The term is generally used as a self-identification of sexual or romantic orientation. Lesbian is most often defined as a woman who is attracted to other women romantically, sexually, or both, among many other definitions.

So You Want to Be a Lesbian? by Liz Tracey