The meaning of LGBTTQQIAAP can be tricky to keep up with. Here is a simple guide to all the main sexual and gender identity acronyms.
Image: Imago/ZumaPress/C. Faga
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Since the term LGBT was coined in the late 1980s, public understanding of sexual and gender identity has progressed significantly. Here is a breakdown of all the letters.
Lesbian: A woman who is attracted only to other women.
Gay: A man who is attracted only to other men, but also used to broadly describe people who are attracted to the same sex.
Bisexual: Anyone who is attracted to more than one sex/gender.
Transgender: Someone whose gender identity differs from their gender at birth.
Transsexual: Similar to transgender but it refers to people who desire to or have permanently transitioned to the gender with which they identify, seeking medical assistance.
Queer: Reclaimed pejorative term now used by people who don't identify with the binary terms of male and female or gay and straight and do not wish to label themselves by their sex acts.
Questioning: Someone who is still questioning or exploring their sexual/gender identity.
Intersex: Someone who's body is neither fully male or female due to medical variation. Includes people previously known as hermaphrodites, now considered an offensive term.
Ally: Someone who is straight but supports the LGBTTQQIAAP community.
Asexual: Someone with no sexual attraction to any gender.
Pansexual: Someone whose sexual attraction is not based on gender and more based on personality. They may also be gender fluid. Sometimes used to differentiate between the binary choice of two genders implied by "bisexual."
Berlin Pride through the years
Berlin celebrated its 40th annual LGBT Pride celebration, also known as Christopher Street Day, in 2018. A look back at the history of one of Europe's biggest Pride festivals.
Image: Reuters/F. Bensch
Groundbreaker
Bernd Gaiser, a longtime rights activist, founded Berlin Pride in 1979. Gaiser told <i>Die Zeit</i> newspaper in 2018 that his community realized, "that only when we, as gay men and lesbians, go out in public and confront society ... can we force them to change their attitudes towards us." About 500 people attended that first celebration.
Image: picture-alliance/TSP/M. Wolff
Fight for your rights
Each year, Berlin Pride has a different theme decided upon by a public forum. In 1998, for the first time, the party got political. "We demand equal rights," was the theme. Same-sex couples were not even allowed legally recognized civil partnerships in Germany until 2001.
Image: picture-alliance
Christopher Street Day
In many German cities, Pride is also known as Christopher Street Day or CSD. Christopher Street is the New York location of the Stonewall Inn. In the early hours of July 28, 1969, police led a brutal raid inside the famous gay bar. The ensuing violent demonstrations of gay and lesbian New Yorkers against the excessive force used by police became known as the Stonewall Riots.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Mainstream support
In February 2001, same-sex couples were granted legal civil unions, largely due to the efforts of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), who were in power at the time and able to pass the law over the protests of the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU). SPD Bundestag President Wolfgang Thierse (left) attended Berlin Pride that year in a sign of solidarity.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Activists in all forms
In 2014, as the fight to legalize gay marriage was heating up, Brandenburg state Police Commissioner risked disciplinary action by marching in the Pride Parade in his uniform without permission. Over the years, CSD Berlin has become of the biggest pride celebrations in the world.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Carstensen
Marriage legalization
The 2017 parade would be the last before gay marriage was legalized in Germany, which came in October of that year after Chancellor Angela Merkel manuevered a way to let it happen without herself having to promote it and alienate her more conservative voter base. However, the LGBT community in Germany still faces regular discrimination, such as in adoption law.
Image: Reuters/F. Bensch
Miss CSD
From 500 attendants in 1979, Berlin Pride now averages about 500,000 participants a year. The celebration is no longer just for the LGBT community, but for allies as well.
Image: Getty Images/C. Koall
Always political
Pride is often political, and the causes championed each year at Christopher Street Day are not only LGBT rights but human rights and problems that affect all people. Here, a participant holds up an environmental awareness sign: "Avoid plastic waste!"
