Video credit: What are pronouns?, Minus18, published September 8, 2014. https://youtu.be/3xpvricekxU
This interactive activity created by Minus18 demonstrates how to use common pronouns in different grammatical situations.
Additional Resources
These resources share further information, explanations, examples, and/or demonstrations of pronouns.
The library regularly offers button-making events where students can create their own Pride and/or Pronoun pins! Even when there is not an ongoing event, students are welcome to contact librarian Garrett Traylor or stop by the library to inquire about Pride and Pronoun buttons. Additionally, there is a display of the past and current pride pins made during library events near the elevators on the 2nd floor of the library.
What does LGBTQIA+ mean?
LGBTQIA+ (often shortened to LGBT, LGBTQ, or LGBTQ+) is one of several acronyms for the queer community:
L: lesbian
G: gay
B: bisexual
T: transgender
Q: queer and/or questioning
I: intersex
A: asexual, aromantic, agender, and allies
+: many other identities, including but not limited to nonbinary, pansexual, and Two-Spirit
A fuller list of definitions for these and additional identities, as well as other LGBTQIA+ terms, can be found in PFLAG National's Glossary here. Additionally, a short primer on key definitions and distinctions between gender, sexuality, romantic identity, and assigned sex can be found here.
The LGBTQIA+ community as a whole is represented by the Rainbow Pride Flag, which has several different variations, including:
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| Rainbow Pride Flag: Designed by Gilbert Baker in 1978, this was meant to be a symbol to represent the entire LGBTQIA+ community. Each color has a meaning: red stands for life, orange for healing, yellow for the sun, green for nature, blue for serenity, and purple for spirit (Glass, 2023). | "Philadelphia Pride Flag": In 2017, the city of Philadelphia adopted this version of the pride flag to include brown and black stripes representing diversity and inclusivity as well as to draw attention to issues BIPOC members of the LGBTQIA+ community face (Waite, 2022). |
Progress Pride Flag: Daniel Quasar created this revamped pride flag in 2018 to reimagine the Philadelphia Pride flag from the year before to also explicitly include the colors from the Transgender Pride Flag; the chevron design also represents progress (Braidwood, 2018; Hitti, 2018). |
Intersex -inclusive Progress Pride Flag: In 2021, Valentino Vecchietti created an update to the Progress Pride flag in order to incorporate the Intersex pride flag in the center of the chevron (Browning, 2021). |
Two Spirit Progress Pride flag: Mitchel Bowers, a Metis Two Spirit person and Board Chair of the Pride YMM organization, created this flag to incorporate the two feather design that represents two-spiritedness (McDermott, 2022). |
| Image source: Wikipedia | Image source: Wikipedia | Image source: PinkNews | Image source: LGBTQ Nation | Image source: Pride YMM |
Additionally, many individual identities also have their own pride flags.
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Lesbian |
Gay |
Bisexual |
Transgender |
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Intersex |
Asexual |
Aromantic |
Agender |
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Pansexual |
Nonbinary |
Genderqueer |
Two Spirit** |
| **There is not an official Two-Spirit flag, but this 2016 flag created by Tumblr user 2Sanon is the most commonly used version (Grand Rapids Pride Center, n.d.) | |||
| Images Source: Wikimedia Commons | |||
Fuller lists and explanations of individual pride flags can be found in the following articles and websites:
