Lesser-Known Sexualities in the LGBTQ+ Community

Many people are aware of the LGBTQ+ community, as well as what some as the letters stand for, such as L for lesbian, G for gay, B for bisexual, and so on. But often people don’t realize that there are more sexualities in the community than are just listed in the acronym. And even though some of these sexualities may be similar to one another, they still have distinct differences.

For example, there is pansexual. According to rollingstone.com, “the meaning of pansexual is clear: someone who is attracted – either emotionally, physically or both – to all genders. This includes cisgender, transgender, agender and gender nonconforming individuals.” This term is similar to and sometimes confused with bisexual, which is attraction to two or more genders. A common explanation of the difference between the two is that pansexual people are attracted to people regardless of gender, while for bisexual people, the gender of the other person may be taken into account.

Some other examples are polysexual and asexual. The word polysexual basically means attracted to multiple (but not all) genders. This isn’t like bisexuality because bisexual people can be attracted to all genders, while many times polysexual people are not. Another term is asexual: an identity where people experience little to no sexual attraction. This doesn’t mean that a person who is asexual lacks a sex drive or that they don’t have sex; they just sometimes don’t feel sexual attraction to other people.

These are just some of the lesser-known sexualities in the LGBTQ+ community. There are so many more to learn because these are like the tip of an iceberg, and if you go deeper, you’ll discover there’s a whole lot more down there. 

If you want to learn more about them, check out: https://www.hrc.org/resources/glossary-of-terms