Shadowstraight

Shadowstraight is an orientation that has one of two definitions:

1. An orientation affected by the fact you’re transmasculine, a trans man, transneutral, nonbinary, or just not a woman (includes multigender and genderfluid/genderflux/fluidflux folxs), as you either are dysphoric about being called a woman, and/or experience a disconnection from traditional womanhood. You may describe your attraction as any of the following: MLM; MLNB; MLX; NBLM; NBLNB; NBLX, etc – but you don’t identify your labels as WLM due to reasons listed above. With a multigender and/or genderfluid/genderflux/fluidflux identity, one feels straight when with a woman and/or has a fluctuating level of dysphoria where they may sometimes view your attraction as straight/julietian in nature, or as WLM.
2. An orientation affected by the fact you’re transfeminine, a trans woman, transneutral, nonbinary, or just not a man (includes multigender and genderfluid/genderflux/fluidflux folxs), as you either are dysphoric about being called a man, and/or experience a disconnection from traditional manhood. You may describe your attraction as any of the following: WLW; WLNB; MLX; NBLW; NBLNB; NBLX, etc – but you don’t identify your labels as MLW due to reasons listed above. With a multigender and/or genderfluid/genderflux/fluidflux identity, one feels straight when with a man and/or has a fluctuating level of dysphoria where they may sometimes view your attraction as straight/romeric in nature, or as MLW.

The original shadowstraight flag.

Shadowstraight flag redesign by thepokedexisgay.

In either case, to express the disconnection, the prefix shadow- is used.

In simpler terms, a shadowstraight may be defined as the following:

1. Being multigender/genderfluid/genderflux/fluidflux but never MLW, yet feeling like your attraction to women is strayt. Likewise, being multigender/genderfluid/genderflux/fluidflux but never WLM, yet feeling like your attraction to men is strayt.
2. Being m-spec and not WLM or MLW, yet feeling a connection to the label depending on your gender identity.
3. Being too dysphoric about being called a woman/girl/being thought of as one, yet being either NBLM, MLM or XLM with a connection to the straight label. Likewise, being too dysphoric about being called a man/boy/being thought of as one, yet being either NBLW, WLW or XLW with a connection to the straight label.

History

The shadow- orientations (shadowlesbian, shadowgay, and shadowfloric) were first coined by Tumblr user ashix0trender0juice on 19 July 2020, with shadowenbian and shadowstraight being coined later on 26 August 2020. The flags were made around the same time.

A redesign of the shadow- flags were created by Tumblr user thepokedexisgay. The shadowstraight redesign was posted 28 February 2021.