Medusan

Medusan or medousan is a NHLNH label for any nonhuman or alterhuman who is attracted to other alterhumans and nonhumans.

Etymology
"Medusan" is derived from the name "Medusa," a gorgon from Greek Mythology. The coiner chose to name it after Medusa because "regular humans who look upon her face turn to stone, but we’re not regular humans! we are perceiving a feeling of attraction that they simply can’t."

The alternate spelling, medousan, is simply based on the direct transliteration of "Medousa."

Pronunciation
"Meh-doo-sin"

Definition

 * referring to alterhuman/nonhuman people who are sexually and/or romantically attracted to other alterhuman people and/or nonhumans. this can mean monsters, aliens, or mythical creatures - any intelligent nonhuman creature. - queer-buccaneers, 2017
 * Gleichaeus: a term to describe nonhumans who are attracted to other nonhumanss; being nhlnh/nh4nh/nonhuman-loving-nonhuman; prioritizing the influence ones nonhuman-ness has over their attractions exclusively or in conjunction with ones other orientations. - mogaicemetery, 2021

Alterhuman is an umbrella term for anyone who doesn't fully connect with social ideas of humanity, and includes nonhumanity. In the context of NHLNH, a nonhuman is an intelligent being that does not identify wholly or exclusively as human, or a strictly nonsentient being. For example, in the context of NHLNH and Medusan, a nonhuman includes:


 * Dogkin (an individual identifying as a dog while bodily human)
 * A non-sentient object such as a stuffed animal (as it is incapable of experiencing harm--this falls under objectum attraction)

But would not include:


 * A dog incapable of sapient (human/human-level) thought who is bodily a dog
 * Any sentient being with a physical body that is not a human

History
Medusan was coined along with its flag by Tumblr user queer-buccaneers on December 26 2017. It was likely the inspiration for the various NHLNH labels that post-dated it.

Gleichaeus, a seperate but similar term, was coined along with its flag on August 20 2021 by mogaicemetery as a near synonym for medusan. The main difference is that gleichaeus is nonhuman exclusive, while medusan includes alterhumans. Mogaicemetery did state that dolls gleichaeus flag could be used as an alternative medusan flag.

Subsets

 * Gleichaeus
 * Echidean

queer-buccaneers' flag
The flag's meaning is described as the following:


 * purple represents alterhumanity. i chose a bright pale shade to reference ultraviolet - a color beyond human perception. this is supposed to represent the unseen nature of alterhumanity, an identity beyond normal human boundaries!
 * green represents nonhuman creatures. from dragons to zombies to little green men, lots of nonhumans are green! specially, this also references the snakes in medusa’s hair.
 * salmon represents love. but being an off-color from both pink and red, traditional love colors, it represents the uniqueness of medusan attraction and how it differs from human attraction to monsters etc
 * the triskelion is a symbol that has been used lots in heraldry as a symbol for medusa.

The meaning of the gleichaeus flag is not known, though it is likely inspired by the medusan flag.