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

[betenoire]

But first, a rule. I like those. I am really not interested in how you don't identify and why not.

Considering that there are a lot of words that mean basically the same thing, I'm pretty curious this week about why people have chosen the specific word that they've chosen.

for example: Lesbian, Gay Woman, and Dyke at the end of the day have pretty nearly the same definition - but different people tend to gravitate toward one particular word. I know "in real life" I have a lot of friends who are Dykes, but I only know very few Lesbians and to my knowledge I don't hang out with any Gay Women. Is that generational? Is it sub-culture related? What gives? Ditto with Pansexual and Bisexual. What makes people choose one over the other?

I'll go first: I choose Queer. I choose Queer because it means both absolutely nothing and potentially everything/anything. For me picking Queer means I am making a statement that I wish to align myself with the rest of you.

Am I allowed to make a poll or do I have to wait until I remember to send a money order to Medusa?