In the last issue of the Pioneer, there was an opinions article about the issues with Facebook and Drag Queens having to list their full names. The source was a genderqueer person named Jade Sylvan and since then there has been some confusion between sex and gender identification.

So what exactly defines a genderqueer person? A genderqueer person is defined as: “people who possess identities which fall outside of the widely accepted sexual binary (i.e. “men” and “women”). Genderqueer may also refer to people who identify as both transgendered and queer, i.e. individuals who challenge both gender and sexuality regimes and see gender identity and sexual orientation as overlapping and interconnected.” According to International +LBGTQ at The University of Michigan.

Most people confuse sexual identities with sexual preferences. A sexual identity is how you view yourself. Often this is reflected in pronouns such as he and she, and the feminine and masculine identities, which are often reflected in appearances, clothing, and expression.

Sexual preference is whom you are attracted to in a physical and emotional aspect. Thus, the scale of lesbian, bisexual, gay transgendered, and queer (LBGTQ) has been determined. Even then some sexual preferences are left out on the spectrum, such as: Pansexual, which is someone who is attracted to all gender identities and expressions, and asexual which is someone who is not sexually attracted to any identity or persons.

Often sexual preferences and sexual identities seem obvious to people who subscribe to hetero normality, such as a person identifying as male is attracted to the female sex or vice versa.

Genderqueer identification and sexual preference are completely unrelated. The most common genderqueer identification is the androgynous person, who doesn’t subscribe to male or female clothing and appearances, but opts for the flexibility of a fluid outward gender appearance on a daily basis.

Of course there are numerous other intricacies on this topic, but on the most basic level we hope to have cleared this confusion for our readers