I feel dumb for not knowing this, but can someone please explain to me what AFAB means? I keep seeing it on people's profiles, but it doesn't show up on a Google search.
And all this time I'd been thinking it was a typo, having to do with that British show, Absolutely Fabulous...or something along those lines. Thanks to the OP for asking!
In case the "assigned" part still isn't clear, it's where someone is assumed to identify as male or female based on how their genitals look. So AFAB means assigned female at birth, which means someone was assumed to identify as female because they were born with a vulva and no penis or scrotum. If 'female' and 'male' and 'gender' and 'sex' confuse you, I am about to elaborate on it quite... elaborately. Sex and gender are not the same, but we often use 'female' and 'male' to refer to sex or gender, which can be confusing at first, and possibly contributes to people mistakenly thinking sex and gender are the same. Sex is anatomical, hormonal, and genetic, and is nowhere near black and white. The sex binary is a myth. Gender is psychological and social. For example, I was assigned male at birth, which was (unfortunately) accurate for describing my sex, but not my gender. I call myself female (referring to my gender) because I'm a woman. I don't ever really talk about my sex, because it's nobody's business and isn't ever relevant, and I firmly believe that respecting someone's gender is of utmost importance and that nobody should call a trans woman male in any way, or a trans man female in any way. So generally when people say 'male' or 'female' they're talking about gender, unless the topic is on hormones or genitals. Not sure where this went, or why it went there, but anyway I'd highly recommend reading Trans Bodies, Trans Selves. It's a big ol' doorstopper packed with info on trans people.