Gender in itself is a construct of our long standing history in humanity. While we have seen a correlation with gender identity and sexual organs in humans for our history on this planet; there still well-known evidence that humans have always had people who don't identify within their sex given at birth. Being that it is a construct and system that most of our societies have upheld and idolized for its sexual and manipulative nature. Defining Gender as a system means that it has more that the barest of definitions; this system functions on the perception of the self and the people around you. Women and men are given a chance at life all the same, but we all know the creative differences between the ways we parents and instruct younger girls in comparison to boys. This all comes down to the ways each gender perceives themselves, and the other identities around them. Many men are compelled to not show emotion or compassion for others as a way of gaining strength; however, this is a self-harm tactic that most men have learned from those around them and older than them. 

When we begin to reframe our experiences surrounding gender, we are meerly looking at a the same image with different glasses. While a person may be a person and without identification they remain genderless; however, the moment I tell you she is here or he is there, a completely new perception of the interaction is taking place. This is one of many ways that the way we have made gender a system in our everyday lives. Exploring the understanding of any of our genders, is to go beyond anything our sex at birth might convey. Our gender expression is that of what we have been manipulated over the years to be what it is today. This doesn't mean that your expression is incorrect it just means a lot of interactions helped you form that expression. The different groups of people out there today believe the gender expression somehow infringes on the lives around the person expressing their gender differently, while it has no real impact on those around them. Many people of stereotypical gender expression have experienced several times where the impression of their expression gave someone else a false impression of who they were based on stereotyping. This means that gender is a system that serves very few people in the bigger institutions of modern day capitalism which typically consist of rich white males. 

Gender can be expressed on a spectrum of femininity and masculinity, but at the basis of breaking down gender norms and constructs we have freedom of expression. There may be a gender attached to someone's identity but you can act, dress, and be whomeever you want in this world. Of course this sounds a lot more glamourous than it may be in reality. 

Due to the high range of hate crimes that occur every day surrounding gender and sexual orientation, it has been very important for everyone who is queer in some way to be careful about who they share that information with. It can be dangerous for some of us to share our identifying factors with others. Calling our Significant Others or Family Members: "Partner", "Spouse", "Significant Other", "Sibling", "Pal", (etc.) and other non-gendered specific names can ensure a bit of extra safety. However those who are most inquisitive of these kinds of things may inquire deeper; this is why we encourage our allies to discuss their non-queer relationships and non-queers familiy members in the same way. This has completely destigmatized the word "Partner," and "Spouse," allowing for many more queer individuals to discuss their partners in safety at work or in public.  

Sexuality in modern day (last 50 years) has been a way of socially labeling or determining your preference when it comes to the attraction you have to other gender or sexual orientations. This definition has grown over the years that people have begin to interact more with the topic. We want to point out that being attracted to anyone you may find interesting could be considered as queer attraction if you want it to, or it can always stay unlabeled. There is no pressure when it comes to identifying and figuring out how you feel about your sexual relationships. For a long time there needed to be language in place to identify consent for persuing a relationships or sexual activities, this is due to the danger of public outing could be. *disclaimer: we are discussing the consent to approach not consent for sexual activity based on a sexual orientation* Furthermore, sexual orientation was to make sure that people didn't get hurt by the people who were considered homophobic or a danger to queer communities. For a long time gender identities were lumped into sexual idenitites because of the need to have supportive communities in order to stay alive. 

Sexual identities now-a-days has become a out-dated system where many of us may still identify within it, but many of us know how to communicate our feelings about one another without the need to mention our sexual identities. However this applies to a small sector of able-out spoken members of the queer community who have learned other ways to communicate attraction consensually with out direct mention of sexual identity. If you live in a rural or conservative areas relying on communication of sexual preference may come into conversation, but it's important to be safe and take caution when coming out to new groups. But being surrounded by those who love you for who you love, is important when it comes to coming out. If you want to know more about the common place sexual identities you can check out our LGBTQIA+ page (click to transfer pages).

Due to the changes of perception of gender many have reconsidered their ways of identitfying in their sexual orientation. Queer as a term itself has become much more popular due to its anonymity and ambiguousness; Queer can be any non-straight interaction on the basis of gender or sexual orientation. 

Due to the high range of hate crimes that occur every day surrounding gender and sexual orientation, it has been very important for everyone who is queer in some way to be careful about who they share that information with. It can be dangerous for some of us to share our identifying factors with others. Calling our Significant Others or Family Members: "Partner", "Spouse", "Significant Other", "Sibling", "Pal", (etc.) and other non-gendered specific names can ensure a bit of extra safety. However those who are most inquisitive of these kinds of things may inquire deeper; this is why we encourage our allies to discuss their non-queer relationships and non-queers familiy members in the same way. This has completely destigmatized the word "Partner," and "Spouse," allowing for many more queer individuals to discuss their partners in safety at work or in public.  

Sexuality in it's history typically falls back to women and the ways in which women (or primarily AFAB individuals) have been idolized as sexual objects, but also how they have broken through that barrier to show their interaction in what sexuality of the body and mind means to women. Women's feelings have been overlooked when it comes to the wants and desires of sex, while the male fantasy has been explored to the moon and back. There are a few poets in our human history who have documented any bit of the feminine sexuality. Specifically when it comes to lesbian identities or experiences we have very few solid references in history due to the scrutiny and punishment for homosexuality. 'Sappho' or 'Lesbos', which was alive during the 600-500BC and wrote several poems about the sexuality of the women and specifically about the sexuality that occurs with both sexes.; investing her writing in both lesbian and heterosexual perspectives. Emily Dickinson has also been famous writer who had well hidden metaphors for lesbian love that she hid in 'plain' poetry.