Questioning

Questioning is the process of exploring, learning, or experimenting with what one's gender, sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or another part of one's identity is. Questioning can happen at any age, and can take anywhere from days to years. Questioning is normal for anyone, whether they turn out to actually be LGBTQ+ or not. Questioning can describe both the process of exploring one's identity and the individual who is in the process of questioning.

The opposite of questioning is disambiguan.

Identities
Questioning individuals may experiment with using various identities before finding one that fits.

Some identities, such as bicurious, androcurious, gynecurious, aceallo-unsure, among others, may be used to specifically indicate that one is questioning.

Flag
There are several questioning flags. The creator and meaning for the main question mark flag is unknown.

The magenta and teal flag was created by Tumblr user protego-et-servio on June 17, 2016. Magenta represents sexuality, white represents all possibilities, teal was used because it is otherwise rarely used in sexual or romantic identity pride flags, and black represents both the possibility of aromantic or asexual identities and having pushed away one's feelings for a long time.

The pink and blue flag was created by DeviantArt user Enbygsrd on September 16, 2016, and intended specifically for individuals questioning their gender. The color meanings of this flag are unknown.

The pastel flag with the white question mark over it represents questioning pride and was created by Swocks, the owner of a large LGBTQ+ Hangout community, on August 18, 2020.

The questioning sexuality and questioning romantic orientation flags were coined by Cryptocrew on February 10th of 2021. On the questioning sexuality flag, purple represents the asexual spectrum, magenta represents the allosexual spectrum, white represents community and exploration, blue represents emotions one may feel while questioning and exploring, while grey represents being unsure. On the questioning romantic flag, green represents the aromantic spectrum, pink represents the alloromantic spectrum, white represents community and exploration, blue represents emotions one may feel while questioning and exploring, while grey represents being unsure.

The alternate questioning gender flag was coined by Cryptocrew on February 10th of 2021. Pale orange represents outherine genders, yellow represents xenic genders, white represents community and exploration, dark blue represents manhood, light blue represents masculine genders, purple represents androgynous/neutral genders, light pink represents feminine genders, dark pink represents womanhood, and grey represents genderlessness and confusion.

The sex questioning flag was coined by Tumblr user varsex-pride on February 5th of 2020. The colors are from protego-et-servio's questioning flag.

Resources
