Labels... Do they help us to find our selves or can they limit our feelings?

I recently learned from a colleague that in clinical psychology there is currently a debate about assigning labels to diagnose patients. The reason for this is that some research has shown that if a medical authority tells someone that they ARE depressed or anxious, they will incorporate this new label into their identity and therefore, they will be more likely to adapt their emotions or behaviours unconsciously in order to be congruent with their new identity. As a result, "no-labels" supporters argue that labels might limit patients' behaviour and, as a result, it might compromise their future recovery. On the contrary, other research suggests that mental health patients feel relief after receiving a concrete diagnosis as it usually helps them better understand themselves.

This debate has made me wonder if by self-assigning ourselves a label regarding our sexuality we might be also limiting ourselves from feeling different types of emotions and perhaps, from finding love. This label relativism does not intend to question my reader's labels nor even my own, as questioning your own identity is perhaps one of the most stressful processes that a human being can go through. However, perhaps by being aware of the limitations that our own labels bring us, we could be able to expand our views and options in love.

Someone said to me once that, by definition, we are only homosexuals when we are having sex with a person of the same sex, any other time that we are not engaged in sexual intercourse, we could be defined as only humans. Therefore, labels are always a temporal state that lasts as long as the behaviour or emotion last, but despite the fact that we might tend to have a pattern in our experienced emotions, we need to be aware that patterns sometimes change.


As a result, I would like to share some of the available labels within the LGBTQA community in my blog today to make people aware of the wide variety of labels available to self-define your current emotions and behaviours. Be aware that I have left out any typology generated by the media or by the community itself to designate subgroups such as "butch" or "bears" or any other type of stereotypes as they define more a clothing and hairstyle than sexual or emotional preference.

Heterosexual is used to defining anyone that is sexually attracted to people from the opposite sex.

Homosexuality (I think that we might know this one already....) refers to sexual attraction to people of their own sex.

Bisexual defines a person that is attracted to both sexes. There is a lot of debate and misconceptions about the term but they are a strong B in LGBT that holds its own flag.

Asexual describes a person that lacks sexual attraction toward any gender. This term has recently been named the invisible orientation.

Homoemotional defines a person that has a romantic or emotional attraction to someone of the same sex. This term does not necessarily imply also a sexual attraction to the same sex, a homoemotional can be heterosexual, bisexual or homosexual. An example of a blog describing an homoemotional heterosexual experience is here: Growing into Manhood

Homoromantic this term is possibly a synonym of homoemotional as it also defines a person that forms an emotional attachment to someone of the same sex. However, it seems to be used by asexuals that create emotional attachments to someone from the same sex.

Lesbian refers to female homosexuals.

Gay refers to both men and female homosexuals.

Pansexual defines a person that is attracted sexually and emotionally to all genders.

Transexual refers to a person whose gender identity is not the same assigned at birth.

Cisgender defines a person that identifies with the gender assigned at birth.

Queer.... there are people doing entire PhDs on this term, so I will only say that it refers to something that it is away from the social norm and generally refers to any type of sexuality or gender identity that is not heterosexual or cisgender. For more information, perhaps visit the Wikipedia definition of queer or simply start a PhD in gender studies...

If I have missed any labels, please, don't hesitate on writing a comment.

At the end of the day, what matter is not to have a label but to be able to love... 

Picture taken in Melrose Avenue in L.A. in September 2014.

Update on my personal life: 2 online dating applications installed on my phone but 0 dates so far... hitting the bars is also being contemplated...