FCC Norwood Celebrates Pride Month 2021

Join us on June 27th at 10:00 Am for Worship on the Lawn. We will celebrate our ONA covenant.

Our ONA Committee provides education to our church and the community. Below is a 2 part article written by ONA Committee Members.

ONA Update-Some Common Terms

One our committee’s goals is ongoing education.  As part of PRIDE month, we have a 2-part series on some common terms related to the LGBTQIA2S+ community that may or may not be familiar to you.  These definitions come from an organization called GLADD which is a dynamic media force that tackles tough issues to help shape the narrative around the LGBTQIAS+ community.

Part 1: Some Common terms referring to the LGBTQIA2S+.  What does it mean?

 LGBTQIA2S+=The acronym used for the community continues to get longer.

 L = Lesbian: A woman whose enduring physical, romantic, and/or emotional attraction is to other women. Some lesbians may prefer to identify as gay (adj.) or as gay women. - GLAAD

 G = Gay: The adjective used to describe people whose enduring physical, romantic, and/ or emotional attractions are to people of the same sex (e.g., gay man, gay people). Sometimes lesbian (n. or adj.) is the preferred term for women. - GLAAD

 B = Bisexual: A person who has the capacity to form enduring physical, romantic, and/ or emotional attractions to those of the same gender or to those of another gender. People may experience this attraction in differing ways and degrees over their lifetime. - GLAAD

 T = Transgender: An umbrella term for people whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. People under the transgender umbrella may describe themselves using one or more of a wide variety of terms - including transgender. - GLAAD

Q = Queer: An adjective used by some people, particularly younger people, whose sexual orientation is not exclusively heterosexual (e.g. queer person, queer woman). Typically, for those who identify as queer, the terms lesbian, gay, and bisexual are perceived to be too limiting and/or fraught with cultural connotations they feel don't apply to them. Some people may use queer, or more commonly genderqueer, to describe their gender identity and/or gender expression (see non-binary and/or genderqueer below). Once considered a pejorative term, queer has been reclaimed by some LGBT people to describe themselves; however, it is not a universally accepted term even within the LGBT community. - GLAAD

 I = Intersex: An umbrella term describing people born with reproductive or sexual anatomy and/or a chromosome pattern that can't be classified as typically male or female. Those variations are also sometimes referred to as Differences of Sex Development (DSD.) - GLAAD

 A = Asexual: An adjective used to describe people who do not experience sexual attraction (e.g., asexual person). A person can also be aromantic, meaning they do not experience romantic attraction. (For more information, visit asexuality.org.) - GLAAD

 2S = Two Spirit  “Two Spirit is a term only appropriate for Native people.” “Two Spirit people have both a male and female spirit within them and are blessed by their Creator to see life through the eyes of both genders.” - Tony Enos

 + = Always include the + when you are using the acronym. This shows that you are including all people in the community that don’t have a letter in the acronym.

Information from GLAAD Media Reference:

https://www.glaad.org/reference/lgbtq

https://www.glaad.org/reference/transgender

Indian Country Today article by Tony Enos: https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/8-misconceptions-things-know-two-spirit-people 

ONA Update

In Part 2 of our PRIDE educational series, here is a list of some common terms you may hear when people refer to “Gender Identity” (again, all text is from GLAAD).

https://www.glaad.org/reference/transgender

Gender Identity

A person's internal, deeply held sense of their gender. For transgender people, their own internal gender identity does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. Most people have a gender identity of man or woman (or boy or girl). For some people, their gender identity does not fit neatly into one of those two choices (see non-binary and/or genderqueer below.) Unlike gender expression (see below) gender identity is not visible to others.

Gender Expression

External manifestations of gender, expressed through a person's name, pronouns, clothing, haircut, behavior, voice, and/or body characteristics. Society identifies these cues as masculine and feminine, although what is considered masculine or feminine changes over time and varies by culture. Typically, transgender people seek to align their gender expression with their gender identity, rather than the sex they were assigned at birth.

 Sexual Orientation

Describes a person's enduring physical, romantic, and/or emotional attraction to another person. Gender identity and sexual orientation are not the same. Transgender people may be straight, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer. For example, a person who transitions from male to female and is attracted solely to men would typically identify as a straight woman. 

 Transgender (adj.)

An umbrella term for people whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. People under the transgender umbrella may describe themselves using one or more of a wide variety of terms - including transgender. Some of those terms are defined below. Use the descriptive term preferred by the person. Many transgender people are prescribed hormones by their doctors to bring their bodies into alignment with their gender identity. Some undergo surgery as well. But not all transgender people can or will take those steps, and a transgender identity is not dependent upon physical appearance or medical procedures.

 Transition

Altering one's birth sex is not a one-step procedure; it is a complex process that occurs over a long period of time. Transition can include some or all of the following personal, medical, and legal steps: telling one's family, friends, and co-workers; using a different name and new pronouns; dressing differently; changing one's name and/or sex on legal documents; hormone therapy; and possibly (though not always) one or more types of surgery. The exact steps involved in transition vary from person to person. Avoid the phrase "sex change".

 Cisgender

A term used to describe people who are not transgender. "Cis-" is a Latin prefix meaning "on the same side as," and is therefore an antonym of "trans-." A more widely understood way to describe people who are not transgender is simply to say non-transgender people.

 Gender Non-Conforming

A term used to describe some people whose gender expression is different from conventional expectations of masculinity and femininity. Please note that not all gender non-conforming people identify as transgender; nor are all transgender people gender non-conforming. Many people have gender expressions that are not entirely conventional – that fact alone does not make them transgender. Many transgender men and women have gender expressions that are conventionally masculine or feminine. Simply being transgender does not make someone gender non-conforming. The term is not a synonym for transgender or transsexual and should only be used if someone self-identifies as gender non-conforming.

 Non-binary and/or genderqueer

Terms used by some people who experience their gender identity and/or gender expression as falling outside the categories of man and woman. They may define their gender as falling somewhere in between man and woman, or they may define it as wholly different from these terms. The term is not a synonym for transgender or transsexual and should only be used if someone self-identifies as non-binary and/or genderqueer.

 We hope that this information is helpful in clarifying some of the language that is heard frequently in conversation or the media.  Although confusing and overwhelming at times, the goal is to have a better understanding surrounding some of the LGBTQIA2S+ community.

-The ONA Committee