Written by Ryan Pogemiller
Main Orientations:
Asexual – Does not experience sexual attraction.
“One is asexual if they do not feel sexual attraction to anybody.”
Bisexual – Attraction to one or more genders.
“One is bisexual if they feel attraction to both males and females simultaneously.”
Heterosexual – Attraction to only the opposite gender of oneself.
“One is heterosexual if they feel attracted to the opposite gender; a male attracted to a female.”
Homosexual – Attraction to only the same gender of oneself.
“One is homosexual is they feel attracted to the same gender; a male attracted to a male or a female attracted to a female. May also be referred to as lesbian for females who identify as gay.”
Pansexual – Attraction towards all genders, including non-binary and other forms of non-binary genders.
“One is pansexual if they feel attraction to people despite their gender identity; being attracted to people of both binary and non-binary genders.”
Underrepresented Sexual Orientations:
Abrosexual – Fluctuates between different sexualities.
“One is abrosexual if they feel heterosexual feelings at one time, but asexual feelings at another time.”
Akoisexual – Experiences attraction, but does not wish for it to be reciprocated.
“One is akoisexual if they feel attraction to someone but do not want the other person to be
attracted to them.”
Apothisexual – Sex- and romance-repulsed.
“One is apothisexual if they feel no desire for sexual interaction or romance of any form.”
Autochrissexual – Feels sexual arousal but does not wish to participate.
“One is autochrissexual if they feel aroused while viewing pornography, but do not wish to engage in sexual interaction.”
Ceterosexual – Only attracted to non-binary people.
“One is ceterosexual if they feel attracted to people who do not identify as male or female.”
Cupiosexual – Lack of attraction, but desires a relationship.
“One is cupiosexual if they would like to be in a relationship, but they lack attraction the person which may prevent them from engaging in romantic acts of affection.”
Demisexual – Attraction is only found after an emotional bond has been formed.
“One is demisexual if they will not feel attraction until they have formed an emotional bond to the
person in question.”
Fraysexual – Attracted to someone, but then fades after the initial “click”.
“One could be described as fraysexual if they feel attraction to a person one night, but does not
feel that attraction after the following night.”
Graysexual – Does not feel attraction, but may feel it under rare circumstance; however, they may have no desire to act upon the attraction.
“One is graysexual if they do not feel attraction; however, they may feel attraction under a specific circumstance but may choose not to act on it. For example, one might be feeling attraction to a women with brown hair and blue eyes, but not acting upon it.”
Placiosexual – Little to no desire to receive sexual acts, but desires performing them on someone else.
“One is placiosexual if they get pleasure out of performing sexual acts on others, but not from receiving them.”
Polysexual – Attraction to multiple genders; however, may not be all genders.
“Similar to pansexual, polysexual people may feel attraction to specific genders, be it binary and
non-binary, but not all genders.”
Quoisexual – Not identifying with a label.
“One is quoisexual if they do feel attraction, or if they do not, but choose not to label themselves
with any sexual identity.”
Reciprosexual – Experiencing attraction only when someone else expresses attraction to you.
“One is reciprosexual if they only feel attraction once the other person expresses their attraction to you.”
Requiessexual – Little to no attraction due to emotional exhaustion.
“One is requiessexual if they do not feel attraction due to emotion exhaustion of some form;
depression, for example, could cause one to feel this way.”
able to add “-romantic” in place of sexual for these adjectives.
Other:
Homoflexible – Primarily attracted to the same sex, but occasionally will be attracted to the opposite sex.
“One is homoflexible if they feel attraction to the same sex, but may have homosexual tendencies occasionally.”
Heteroflexible – Primarily attracted to the opposite sex, but occasionally will be attracted to the same sex.
“One is heteroflexible if they feel attraction to the opposite sex, but may have heterosexual tendencies occasionally.”
Underrepresented Gender Identities:
Agender – Does not identify as a gender (genderless).
Aliagender – Defines their gender as ‘other’ from existing genders.
Androgyne – Identifies as androgynous, gender-wise.
Bigender – Identifies as two genders or able to move between them.
Cisgender – Identifies as the gender assigned to them at birth.
Demigender: Feeling a partial, but not a full, connection to a particular gender identity. Genderfluid: Moves between genders; gender is not defined or pinned down.
Genderflux: Having a gender that varies in intensity over time; related to genderfluid. Graygender: Partially identifies with a gender outside of the binary.
Intergender: The intended gender for intersex people to use; in the middle of binary genders of female and male.
Pangender: Experiences a wide variety of genders; may describe it as something indescribable.
Polygender: Identifying as many genders.
Transgender: Identifying as a gender that does not conform to typical male or female genders.
Trigender: Shifts between the stereotypical behaviors of male, female, and a third gender.
Credit to mmikan on Tumblr for discovering these definitions; all examples written by myself.
