As history has gone by, it's become more and more socially acceptable to be in the LGBTQ+ community. While there is still lots of hate in the world today, it's not as scary to be trans or gay, and it's in lots of places now, same-sex marriage is already, or becoming legal. The thing that allies have trouble understand/remembering, is all the different types of sexualities and gender identities. I want to help explain some of the more common ones, and in the future, I'll include some of the more rare ones.
Lesbian: A lesbian is typically seen as a woman who likes women, but women are not the only gender that can identify as lesbian. A lot of the time, AFAB non-binary people will also identify themselves as a lesbian. Another thing is while men might make dumb jokes about being lesbian, they really aren't, lesbian isn't a term for simply "liking women", its a term that basically relates to women (or non-binary that stated a second ago) feeling romantic/sexual feelings towards other women.
Gay: Someone can identify as gay, whether they are a man or woman, and while it's kinda rare, non-binary people will refer to themselves as gay sometimes if the only gender they find themselves attracted to is the same gender that they themselves were assigned at birth. Also, the word gay is not a cuss word and it is not offensive (unless you're purposely trying to invalidate someone's feelings, but if you're doing that you're probably calling them straight or confused).
Bisexual: Bisexuality is a term that anyone can identify with, regardless of gender identity. Bisexual is simply being attracted, to two different genders (not all). The most common form of bisexuality is typically liking girls and guys, but it could be anyone two genders. Girl and Genderfluid, or Agender and Trigender, (the list goes on and on and on).
Pansexual: Someone who is pansexual, or genderblind, finds themselves attracted to anyone regardless of gender. Gender doesn't play a role at all whatsoever when it comes to romantic/sexual attraction. (If you think you might be pansexual but also have a preference, try out the identity omnisexual :D) Pansexual is not the same as bisexual, because while bisexual relates to 2 individual genders, and bisexual people typically have a preference for what gender they prefer, pansexual people are "genderblind", and they will like/love anyone, and their gender doesn't really matter to them.
Transgender: Transgender is sort of an umbrella term, because not only does it refer to Female to Male (me :D) and Male to Female, it also refers to all non-binary identities, and genderfluidity. The official definition of transgender is someone who identifies/feels more comfortable as a gender different than what they were assigned at birth.
Non-Binary: Someone who non-binary does not identify within the binary (male and female). Non-Binary is an umbrella term for any identities that don't fall under male or female, although it is commonly used as identity itself. Non-Binary terms tend to get kinda confusing, especially since it's hard to remember all of them considering there are so many, but the thing to remember is to be respectful, and be an ally if someone you know comes out as non-binary.
Genderfluid: Technically speaking, genderfluid people do fall under the "Non-Binary" label, but I like to think of them as their own special group. People who are genderfluid, often are a girl, a guy, both, and neither. How does that make sense? Basically, their gender fluctuates, one day they might be a girl, then for the next 4 there both a girl AND a guy, then for a couple of hours they're a guy, then for a few weeks, they're neither. Trust me, it's confusing for people who are genderfluid as well.
Thank you for taking the time to read this! If you have any questions or anything, or maybe you have an identity I didn't mention you'd like for me to explain, feel free to ask.
