Glossary

A small glossary of some of the terms/abbreviations/acronyms i use on my gemlog. In providing expansions/definitions, i'm in no way intending to imply that they are somehow ‘objectively correct’; i'm just wanting to explain what _i_ mean when i use them. i usually prefer to not capitalise acronyms unless the acronym forms an English word.

• adhd : ‘attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder’. A psychiatric classification in the DSM-V (fifth edition of the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders”). Includes what was formerly referred to as ‘ADD’ (‘attention-deficit disorder’).

• afab : ‘assigned female at birth’.

• amab : ‘assigned male at birth’.

• bdsm : ‘bondage, domination, submission, masochism’.

• cisgender : Identifying with, and living as, the gender identity assigned to one at birth.

• foss : ‘free / open-source software’

• FUD : ‘Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt’. A propaganda tactic.

Wikipedia: ‘Fear, uncertainty, and doubt’

• gender : This is _not_ just a trendy ‘Politically Correct’ synonym for the word ‘sex’. However, my experience over the decades has been that its multiple related semantics result in much confusion and crosstalk, so i generally try to use a more specific phrase. Refer to the following post for details.

“On the word ‘gender’ and the phrase “gender is a social construct””

• genderqueer : Identifying as neither solely female or solely male. One can be trans without being genderqueer.

• ict : ‘information and communication technology’.

• kink : Practices, both sexual and non-sexual, including bdsm but not limited to it, which tend to be considered outré from the standpoint of mainstream intimate behaviours.

• nd : ‘neurodiverse/neurodivergent’. Having a mind that thinks about, experiences and interacts with the world in a way not usually considered ‘normal’. To me, neurodivergence is part of the natural diversity of people, in the same way that not all people have white skin. Being neurodivergent can be disabling in the sense that society expects and demands neuronormativity, and penalises those who aren't/can't be so.

• nt : ‘neurotypical’. Not neurodiverse/neurodivergent.

• queer : Roughly, non-heterosexual, though there are various subtleties to it.

• RACK : ‘Risk-Aware Consensual Kink’.

• STEM : ‘science, technology, engineering, mathematics’.

• tgd : ‘trans and gender diverse/divergent’. An umbrella term referring to all those who aren't cisgender.

• trans(gender) : Identifying with, and living as, a gender identity other than the one assigned at birth. i rarely use the term ‘transsexual’, and don't know many tgd people who use and/or identify with it.

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