Personal LGBTQ+ Experiences: Gender & Attraction

Agender

Non-binary and agender are my primary labels. For me the definitions of having no gender and being gender neutral are interchangeable. I have no sense of gender. I experience dysphoria from excessive amounts of feminity and masculinity with my presentation. Sometimes I can't tell what will make me uncomfortable until I try it. During a convention, after I took off a cosplay I still had nail polish on. It gave me a lot of dysphoria when I wasn't cosplaying because it felt like excessive feminity. One time I put on an outfit that felt way to masculine and it felt not only dysphoric, but also fake. My chest gives me dysphoria the most and at the time of writing I've been wanting top surgery for over a decade. I like presenting in gender neutral ways and avoiding looking "girly" at all costs. I shop in all gendered clothing sections of stores. I wear feminine and masculine clothing that makes me happy.

Demiromantic/sexual

I cannot be attracted to anyone unless I develop an emotional attachment to them first. This means I have to at least feel like I really know them. I genuinely believe these orientations are more common than people realize, but it's LGBTQ+ because "society" thinks everyone should be alloromantic/sexual, which is the opposite of aromantic/sexual. Demi is the middle ground between allo and ace.