How Do You Self-Identify...and why.

[imperfect_cupcake]

heart = girlie girl
gender = femme and my other gender is woman
sex = female (I get very irritated when people confuse sex and gender)
sexual orientation = dyke/queer. I often call myself lesbian though I'm not formost vagina driven. dyke cock is the first, then vagina. but both enjoyed.

I was not born femme. I was born female then I learned that my characteristics that i grew into were tomboy. I loved girl clothes but had no desire to hang out with other girls at all.
It wasn't till I realised I was a dyke that my big huge drag queen little girl came out.
I was happy to meet her.
I've slowly let go of the tomboy in the past 10 years, of having to prove I'm "capable" - I don't have to be good at fixing things. I still love camping and snakes etc but I no longer feel I have to prove anything by doing all the repairs. And frankly, I don't want to do any cleaning either. I'm happy to pay other people to do it.

so perhaps I've gotten rather urban as well.

[Girl_On_Fire]

Queer Femme. When I first came out, I used to word "lesbian" but it just never seemed to fit me right. Then I started discovering my attraction to male-identified butches and trans guys and I went..."Oh." One of my closest friends told me there was a name for that: Queer Transensual Femme. I loved it. But recently I just shorted it to Queer Femme. I still use lesbian so others outside the B/F community can relate. Sometimes I loathe lengthy explanations.

[wahya]

I am Butch but also consider myself two spirited. I also have a couple of other titles I am fine with too. Mom, Ba Ba ( grandson's name for me) I look like a male but I think like a woman. I think that women by nature are more intelligent then men are.(my opinion) I am attracted to strong,smart & independent femmes. But in the bedroom I like to be in total control.

[Library_girl]

I am very much femme and identify as femme or even high femme. I wear lots of labels like femme, sub, babygirl, etc. I embrace labels and it's probably because I'm a librarian--we classify everything.

To the rest of the world, gay or straight, I'm a lesbian and that's fine with me. I am a lesbian too. In the LGBT world, some recognize me as femme. I came out of the closet when I was 17, then figured out that I was a femme when I was about 22 or 23. That was like a second coming out--what a thrill!

Now that I'm in love with and in a committed relationship with a FTM, some may be inclined to question my self definition of "lesbian". I still consider myself part of the gay community, the LGBT community, but my identity is mine, not someone else's.

I think identity, for me anyway, is something that evolves and grows with time. Whether it's gender identity, sexual identity, cultural identity, or what have you. I'm fascinated by this and just love the multitudes and diversity of identities in our world.

[deb0670]

i am femme, lesbian,queer, woman, etc..
i am with an FTM, but that does not take away from who or what i am.
i am a babygirl, submissive, but have my independent side as well..

[StrongButch]

A kinky bastard!

[Loren_Q]

Originally Posted by Library_girl

...snip this part...

I think identity, for me anyway, is something that evolves and grows with time. Whether it's gender identity, sexual identity, cultural identity, or what have you. I'm fascinated by this and just love the multitudes and diversity of identities in our world.

What she said.

I do use labels because it makes things easier for others, but mostly I self-identify as Loren, if you want to know about me, ask.

Labels I use most often: queer, lesbian, dyke, leather-dyke, butch, androgynous, gender-queer, Asian, Latino, Latina, and polyamorous. There's more, but you get the gist.

Why I use these labels is because I'm comfortable with them, and they're readily accessible.

I used lesbian and dyke when I first came out. Lesbian to be polite, dyke to be "in your face".

I'm of an age that I was part of the re-appropriation of "queer", so that has special meaning to me.

Leather or leather-dyke or polyamorous doesn't identify me, it defines how I do sex and relationships. But I threw those in cause, well, cause I wanted to.

[Preston]

I identify as a transguy or transgender male. I do not like the term "ftm" for myself because I feel that I am not or never was female specially after I hit puberty all my psychical femininity went out the door. Before I knew what "trans" was I was a dyke or lesbian who was very butch always , and for the majority attracted to women which always brought questioning myself up because a part of me was still attracted to other people specially as I became older. And soon later I realized I was also Pansexual. Now that I finally have "labels" I'm kinda more comfortable with telling people and being open. I'm not having to explain all these details and stipulations to how I identify.

[Scots_On_The_Rocks]

As I answered in the "Butch Pronouns - A Questionaire" thread:

Originally Posted by Scots_On_The_Rocks

I chose to answer only the following question as that based upon my answer to it, all other questions seem to be answered by proxy.

So here is the question I referenced and my answer.

1. How do you identify?

This is an interesting question.

The need within the queer community to quantify and validate our existence and identities into neat, organized categories, has caused us to label things to the point that we have become some long string of pronouns, adjectives and nouns. And oft we are touting off this diatribe of words to people who have stopped listening after the first two words of our identity, where we are striving through words to be seen as "different, unique, and new".

Sadly, language is both evolving and stagnating to the point that people still fall through the cracks between descriptors.

And that is where I fall into this.

There are no descriptors that I feel accurately describe me without my having fallen into the "alphabet soup" and come out covered in layer upon layer of adjectives.

So, oft, "for the sake of conversation", I momentarily don the name-tag of "male-identified butch", and then promptly take it off after introductions are made, because it is my actions that determine who I am, not a string of ill-fitting words.

And due to this aforementioned need to quantify and validate that is so rampant within the queer community, I refrain from throwing gender based monikers around when referring to others in that:

1. People tend to get rather defensive and aggressive around mis-usage of the "proper" descriptors of their choice.

2. I want to be as effectively respectful of others as I possibly can in the hopes that they in turn will respect my gender expression, gender identity, and gender preference.

[TruTexan]

First of all I'm just me. Next would be that I was born butch, I claim it, I walk it, talk it, etc. etc. There's nothing feminine about me and never has been, ever. So I am just being me, who happens to be a butch woman that is a lesbian at heart. Lesbian because it's the first self Identifier in my years of first coming out and it fits me just as snug as butch does.

[Tuff Stuff]

To strangers,i'm a stone butch.With my wife,she gets to play.. and it's different each time.