People new to queer and trans communities may find themselves lost in an array of terms that they've never heard before. Even what the L, G, B, T, Q, I, and A stand for can be confusing.
One of the benefits of questioning one's identity is that it can make it easier to see where identity labels do and don't capture someone's experiences. This is not something that most people who are both straight and cis ever have to think about. But part of the coming out process is, by necessity, finding a label (or labels) that reflect one's experiences of oneself.
Folx in the LGBTQA+/SGL community have been adding and refining labels for well over 100 years.
We moved from "inverts" (defined in the linked page) to "homosexual" to "gay" (these three were used to refer to both men and women) to "gay and lesbian" to "gay, lesbian, and bisexual." (You can find these and other terms explained on this webpage.)
Then there were those of us who insisted on reclaiming some of the labels that had been used to put us down: "queer," "dyke," and "fag." Somewhere along the line, "dyke" and "fag" stopped being used by most of us. But a large portion of us still proudly use "queer."
Then there are trans folx, who have been a part of the "gay and lesbian" community from the outset. We were out there fighting the police at the Stonewall rebellion, along with homeless LGB youth and working class lesbian and bi women. And trans people were part of riots and other activism before Stonewall (e.g., Compton's Cafeteria).
Trans community labels have changed, too, from "transexual" and "transvestite" to "transgendered" to "transgender" and "trans" to the additions of "genderqueer," "nonbinary," and other identity labels.
These changes have been reflected in our community acronyms, which have shifted from "LGB" to "LBGT" to "LGBTQ" to "LGBTQQ" to "LGBTQIA" to "LGBTQIA2S." At some point, many of us started adding the plus sign at the end, symbolic of our constant addition of labels/letters — and/or as a shorthand for people who don't want to add anymore letters.
I am, of course, simplifying label changes that often took decades of slow, incremental shifts. But each label reflects many people's experiences of self. So that dizzying array of identities is a product of people striving to best capture how they see themselves, how they experience the world, and how the world reacts to them. If there isn't a label, we can just create one!
There are some great resources on vocabulary and all of these labels that i'd encourage you to utilize as needed. It will help — as will time and practice.
While many people in LGBTQA+/SGL communities find comfort in being able to see themselves in one or more labels, other people reject the idea of labels, not wanting to limit themselves or create more divisions within queer and trans communities. This can be especially the case for Gen Zers.
If you have this question, you will likely find some of the articles in the adult resources section on pronouns and labels useful.
