LGBTQIA+ basics — what the letters mean and why they matter

If no one ever explained these words to you, you are not alone. Most queer Iraqis assemble their understanding of themselves from fragments — a TV show, a whispered conversation, a forbidden Arabic blog. This page is the explanation that should have been available all along.

The letters, briefly

LGBTQIA+ is an umbrella for a wide range of sexual orientations and gender identities. The letters stand for:

• L — Lesbian. A woman who is romantically and sexually attracted to other women.
• G — Gay. Most often refers to a man attracted to other men, but is sometimes used by anyone of any gender attracted to people of the same gender.
• B — Bisexual. A person attracted to more than one gender. Bisexuality does not require equal attraction to all genders, and it does not disappear if a bisexual person is currently in a relationship with one specific gender.
• T — Transgender. A person whose gender identity does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. Trans is a state of being, not an action — someone is trans whether or not they have done anything medical or social to express it.
• Q — Queer. An umbrella term for anyone whose sexuality or gender does not fit a strict cisgender-heterosexual norm. Some people use “queer” as their primary identity because the more specific labels do not fit. The word was a slur historically and some older people still find it painful; many younger people have reclaimed it.
• I — Intersex. A person born with biological sex characteristics that do not fit typical binary categories of male or female. Intersex is about the body, not about gender identity or who someone is attracted to. Intersex people can be any sexual orientation and any gender.
• A — Asexual (and Aromantic). An asexual person experiences little or no sexual attraction. An aromantic person experiences little or no romantic attraction. The two are related but distinct: someone can be asexual but romantically attracted to others, and vice versa.
• + — and others. The plus is not laziness. It explicitly includes pansexual, demisexual, non-binary, genderfluid, two-spirit (a specifically Indigenous North American identity), and many others. Identity language keeps evolving.

What these terms are not

• They are not a “phase.” Adults have known and described these orientations and identities throughout recorded history, in every culture including Arab and Islamic ones (see our history guide).
• They are not Western imports. Same-sex love and gender variance existed in pre-Islamic, classical Islamic, and modern Arab societies long before contact with the modern West. The Arabic names for some of these identities are recent translations, but the things themselves are not.
• They are not a mental illness. The World Health Organization removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders in 1990 and removed “transsexualism” as a mental illness in the 2019 ICD-11 revision. Major psychiatric associations worldwide have followed.
• They are not a choice. People do not choose who they are attracted to or what gender they are. They only choose whether to express it openly or hide it.
• They are not the same as each other. Sexual orientation (who you are attracted to), gender identity (who you are), gender expression (how you present), and biological sex (your body) are four separate dimensions. See sex vs. gender.

Why precise language matters

When you know a word for what you are, three things change:

1. You can think more clearly about yourself. Vague concepts breed shame; specific words let you reason. “I am bisexual” is something you can hold in your hand. “Something is wrong with me” is not.
2. You can find your community. Knowing the search terms is how queer Iraqis find each other, find guides like this one, and find support — see our community page.
3. You can describe yourself to people who matter. Coming out to a sibling, a friend, or a future partner is easier with words that already exist than trying to invent your own from scratch.

A note on Arabic terminology

Arabic does not have a long-established vocabulary for many modern queer identities. Some commonly-used terms:

• مثلي / مثلية (mithli / mithliyya) — gay / lesbian. The most common modern Arabic word. Literally “of the same kind.”
• متحول جنسياً / متحولة جنسياً (mutaḥawwil/mutaḥawwila jinsiyyan) — transgender. Literally “transformed in sex.” Some trans Arabs prefer عابر/عابرة جنسيا (ʿābir/ʿābira jinsiyyan, “crossing in sex/gender”) because mutaḥawwil implies a process of changing rather than simply being.
• مزدوج/ة الجنس (muzdawij/a al-jins) — bisexual. Literally “of doubled sex/gender.”
• كوير (kwīr) — queer. Direct transliteration; increasingly used by Arab queers to capture what mithli does not.
• ميم عين (mīm-ʿayn) — abbreviation for مجتمع الميم (LGBT community), using the Arabic letters of those acronyms.
• بانسكشوال (bansiksuwāl) — pansexual.
• ثنائي/ة الجنس (thunāʾi/yya al-jins) — intersex. Literally “of two sexes.”

For a deeper look at Arabic gender-neutral pronouns, see Inahuf — the Iraqi Arabic neopronoun.

What this guide series covers

The other pages in this section build out each concept:

• Sex vs. gender — the central distinction that makes everything else make sense
• Biological sex — what “sex” actually refers to, and how intersex bodies fit in
• Gender — what gender identity is and how it can differ from assigned sex
• Sexual orientation — who you are attracted to
• The sexual spectrum — beyond gay/straight/bi
• The gender spectrum — beyond man/woman
• Pronouns — what they are and why they matter
• Inclusive language — practical phrasing for daily use
• LGBTQIA+ history — including Arab and Iraqi history

You do not need to read these in order. Start where you have the most questions.