Gai, also known as unstrayt, is an orientation that is gay but in a uniquely non-binary way. It describes attraction experienced by a non-binary person that one considers to be gay or otherwise non-straight (unstraight), but is not necessarily towards the "same" gender (due to the nature of non-binary genders), unlike symmaic or simulsexual.[1]
This can mean several things based on the nature of one's gender and how one views their attraction. A non-binary person may consider only some of their attractions to be not-straight, or they may consider all of them to be so. They may identify as NBLM, NBLW, NBLNB or any other orientation in addition to being gai.
The term was intended to be similar in meaning to queer but specific to non-binary people and attraction. It has a similar meaning to diamoric. Gai also does not have to mean "x-aligned" attracted to "x-aligned". For example, a demigirl who is attracted to men and demiboys can identify as gai if they feel that attraction is non-straight. A gai person can have any gender alignment, and may be attracted to any genders or gender alignments, so long as one considers that attraction to be non-straight.
The counterpart to gai is strayt.
History
It is unknown when the term was coined. Its earliest use related to this definition was by Tumblr user opalescentorbisian, who also created the gai flag, on December 24, 2017.[2]
Flags
The use of orange in the flag is for solarians while yellow is for non-binary people in general, green is for stellarians, blue is for multi-attracted non-binary people who feel gai towards more than one gender, and purple is for lunarians.
The second gai flag was created by Tumblr user beyond-mogai-pride-flags on May 1, 2019.[3] Another flag using the yellows from original flag in three stripes only was created by Tumblr user Arco-Pluris on February 6, 2020.[4]
An alternate flag was created by FANDOM user Cryptocrew on February 5, 2021. Dark blue represents masculine genders and possible attraction to men, light blue represents peace and kindness, green represents agender and genderless people, pale yellow represents outherine and xenic genders and romance, white represents those who feel gai to multiple genders and multigenders/genderfluid people, black stands for any gender or attraction that falls out of these categories, light pink represents sexual attraction, dark pink represents feminine genders and possible attraction to women, light purple represents culturally specific genders, and dark purple represents androgynous genders. The rainbow represents community and queerness.
References
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20220127042210/https://gai-strayt-alliance.tumblr.com/post/175212373813/what-do-the-terms-gai-and-strayt-mean
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20220127045713/https://nblw-nonsense.tumblr.com/post/168894169724/opalescentorbisian-i-designed-a-gai-pride-flag
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20220127031828/https://beyond-mogai-pride-flags.tumblr.com/post/184587627025/new-gaiunstrayt-pride-flag
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20220127035800/https://arco-pluris.tumblr.com/post/190684376332/simplified-gaistrayt-flags-gai-strayt-alliance