XH: Hello and welcome to Round Table’s Word of the Week. This week, we’re talking about the word LGBT and John, obviously, there’s an expansion form of it which I cannot say.

John: It’s not necessarily a word. I think in English, we would usually call it an acronym. So the acronym is LGBTQQIAAP. I think many of our listeners probably already know LGBT. This has been in common use for a long time. Basically, LGBT stands for “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered.”

XH: LGBT大家應該都非常熟悉了，通常指的是男同、女同、雙性戀和變性者。That’s it.

John: Transgendered, I think, it’s actually a little complicated. Really, it just refers to people who feel as if they were born into the wrong body. This can cover people who feel like they need to go through a sex change or it can just cover people who, you know, are female but want to act male or who are male but want to act female.

If we look at these other words, LGBTQQIAAP, the first Q is “queer” and this is someone who does not want to label themselves. They don’t want to say that they are lesbian. They don’t want to say that they’re gay. Interestingly enough, actually, “queer” used to be a derogatory term. It was reclaimed by the LGBT community, although sometimes it still, depending on how it’s used, can still be derogatory.

XH: 對，我也記得queer曾經是一個對同性戀群體帶有貶義的稱呼，但現在呢，一些性取向異于常人但又不想被明確分類的群體，他們愿意把自己稱作queer。

John: The second Q is “questioning.” It can refer to someone who is just not very sure about their sexuality and maybe they’re going through, you know, a period of exploration.

XH: Okay, questioning that’s easy to understand, 就是對自己的性取向還存有疑問的人。

John: LGBTQQIAAP, just to remind everyone. The I is “intersex.” It refers to someone who, what is medically would be called a hermaphrodite, so, someone who has the reproductive organs of both male and female.

And then, the first A is “asexual.” Someone is not sexually attracted to either gender. The second A is “allies,” a straight, or heterosexual, person that supports the LGBT community.

The last letter, P, it stands for “pansexual.” This refers to a person who is actually attracted to a person because of their personality, not anything to do with their gender, not anything to do with their sexuality, but someone who just likes people for who they are.

XH: Let me try to explain. Intersex是指雌雄同體。Asexual 是無性別或者沒有性欲的人。Allies 本身不是同志，但他們是LGBT人群的支持者。而最后的pansexual是指泛性戀，泛性戀的人對任何的人都有可能產生愛慕的情緒。That is a lot of explanation.

John: Yeah, it’s a lot. It’s a little complicated but I think, you know, once you do a bit of your own research, it becomes quite clear.

XH: It is also quite interesting. So, LGBTQQIAAP, that’s our word of the week.