When Your 'Gender Revolution' Needs a Glossary It's Time to Throw in the Towel

Just when you thought all hope was lost and you could never understand the hundreds of new gender terms, a new crowd-sourced glossary has been made just in time. 

“As a crowd-sourced glossary of gender identity and sexual orientation terminology, this living document is the first of its kind. It’s filled with 85 terms (and counting) defined by people who identify with the terms themselves,” Writes Refinery 29 in the introduction.

Oh goodie! 85 more terms! I didn’t have far to go before I learned something new. Jeri Cheney writes, “Agender means genderless or gender neutral. It does not determine your gender expression, which in my case is trans femme.” If you couldn’t understand that before, I’m sure it’s much clearer now. Then comes the politically correct “aliagender,” which is “someone who defines their gender as ‘other’ than a man or a woman. It was coined as a way to talk about a third gender without appropriating the term Third Gender from other cultures.” It’s good to know this glossary is going to be culturally sensitive.

I also learned that I am an androphilic or androsexual demiromantic. (Where’s my flag?) An androphilic is “primarily sexually, aesthetically, and/or romantically attracted to masculinity.” A demiromantic is a person who does “not experience romantic attraction until a strong emotional or sexual connection is formed with a partner.”) I can finally come out of the closet!

An “aromantic” is not someone who smells like freshly brewed coffee but one who does “not experience romantic attraction.” We used to call those people “mad scientists.” We also can read all about the evils of assuming one’s gender. “A person can never determine another’s gender based on their presentation or expression alone,” says Robyn Franklin, aged 21. Well, hell, this is confusing. I thought we were supposed to accept the outward presentation as the gender of the person expressing it! Aren’t we supposed to call a man in a dress “she?” This glossary is starting to get confusing (like any claim of genders past the number two).

Here’s a new one you’ve never heard: “Boi. Often used by butch lesbians and trans people of color to describe someone who presents and identifies as masculine, but not necessarily as a man.” Then there’s a term called “dead name,” which is the name a person is given at birth, like Bruce Jenner. Apparently we are never, ever to call him that ever again because it’s a dead name.

And how would you like to be known as a “gynesexual?” That’s in there too. Don’t ask. And did you know that the term “homosexual” is offensive? According to the glossary, the word homosexual is “An outdated clinical term referring to queer people that is considered derogatory and offensive.” Only a few years ago, the word “queer” was determined to be offensive. There is literally no keeping up with this movement.

I would go on but frankly, I’m exhausted already. Albert Mohler put it perfectly in his podcast on the topic, where he pointed out that even the revolutionaries can’t keep up with their own vocabulary (a very bad sign for the revolution):

Well, to state the matter just as bluntly as I can, you’ve got a huge problem. A huge problem when you have to issue a glossary for your revolution and the glossary is never-ending, always expanding. You have to have the glossary because no one, even the leading revolutionaries or those who think they are, can keep up with the changing vocabulary and because you have set loose an absolute mayhem in the entire society in which anyone can basically define their own sexuality and gender and furthermore, things that cannot even be discussed on The Briefing. In any way, he or she…Well, we can’t even use those words anymore, might choose. And no one has the right to say that any word doesn’t mean what any single individual claims that it means in terms of that individual’s identity. That’s explicit in this glossary.