Ceterosexuality

Ceterosexuality is a sexual orientation describing attraction to people who are transgender and/or nonbinary, that is, whose gender identity falls outside, or is not limited to, the binary categories of man and woman (WebMD). Some people who use the label describe their attraction as directed exclusively toward transgender and nonbinary people, while others report also being attracted to cisgender people and use ceterosexual to specify that gender identity outside the binary is included in, rather than excluded from, their pattern of attraction. Attraction to transgender people more broadly has also drawn academic attention from psychology and transgender studies, which have examined how people who feel it name and understand that attraction (Wikipedia).

Ceterosexuality is closely related to, and largely used interchangeably with, the older term skoliosexual. WebMD's overview of both terms stresses that neither describes a fetish: being ceterosexual or skoliosexual means finding transgender and nonbinary people to be plausible romantic or sexual partners in the same way any other orientation describes a pattern of attraction, not a specialized sexual interest in transgender bodies as such (WebMD). A 2021 peer-reviewed study in Archives of Sexual Behavior draws the same line from the other direction, treating fetishization as a distinct, documented harm rather than a synonym for this kind of attraction (Anzani et al., 2021).

Because the label is comparatively new and its exact scope is still debated within LGBTQ+ communities, definitions vary in emphasis: some sources frame it broadly as attraction to non-cisgender people in general, while Dictionary.com's entry frames it more narrowly as nonbinary people's attraction to other nonbinary people specifically (Dictionary.com). Most everyday usage follows the broader definition.

Examples

Ceterosexuality is a label whose scope is still being argued over, so what it covers depends partly on who is using it.

What the term covers. Attraction to people whose gender falls outside, or is not limited to, man and woman: transgender and non-binary people. Some people who use it describe attraction directed exclusively that way; others are also attracted to cisgender people and use the word to specify that non-binary gender is included rather than excluded. Dictionary.com frames it more narrowly still, as non-binary people's attraction to other non-binary people. Most everyday use follows the broad reading.

What the term does not cover. Pansexuality describes attraction regardless of gender, where ceterosexuality names gender identity as part of what the attraction is toward, a difference of emphasis that some critics find meaningful and others do not. Fetishisation is a separate and documented harm: Anzani and colleagues (2021) found 64.2% of 299 transgender and non-binary adults had experienced it, characterised by objectification and being reduced to body parts, which is categorically different from an orientation. Androsexuality and gynesexuality organise attraction around masculinity or femininity instead.

How the word is used. It is a DeviantArt coinage from around 2013, built on the neutral Latin ceterus ("the rest", as in et cetera) specifically to replace skoliosexual, whose Greek root means "bent" or "crooked". It appears in community handbooks (the Bisexual Resource Center's 2017 one among them) but in no mainstream clinical or advocacy glossary.

History

The earlier term skoliosexual was coined in 2010 by a DeviantArt user known as Nelde, as part of a diagram cataloguing categories of sexual attraction; it combines the Greek skolios ("bent" or "crooked") with sexual (Dictionary.com). That etymology drew criticism from within the community it described, since it implies that transgender and nonbinary people are a deviation from a straight or "correct" norm. By 2017, the debate had reached mainstream LGBTQ+ press: The Advocate reported that the Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health had recommended skoliosexual as a term for attraction to genderqueer or nonbinary people specifically because it does not imply a preference for particular genitalia or surgical status, while other advocates countered that the word still sounded "clinical, more like a disease or syndrome" than established labels such as gay or lesbian (The Advocate).

Ceterosexual emerged a few years later, around 2013, also on DeviantArt, built from the neutral Latin root cetero- ("other, the rest") instead (the same root used in the everyday phrase et cetera) specifically to avoid the "bent"/"crooked" implication (Dictionary.com). Early use of ceterosexual was inconsistent: some writers treated it as a plain synonym for skoliosexual, while others introduced it explicitly as a replacement intended to retire the older, more contested term. The Bisexual Resource Center's 2017 community handbook is among the early published sources to define the term, describing romantic and sexual attraction involving nonbinary people (Dictionary.com). As of the mid-2020s, usage of both terms remains in flux, and neither has been adopted into mainstream clinical or advocacy-organization glossaries in the way that terms like bisexual or pansexual have.

Terminology & related identities

The corresponding romantic orientation is ceteroromantic (also written skolioromantic), describing romantic without necessarily sexual attraction along the same lines (Simple English Wikipedia).

Ceterosexuality is often discussed alongside pansexuality, since both can describe attraction that is not limited by a partner's position on the male/female binary. The distinction usually drawn is one of emphasis: pansexuality is typically defined as attraction regardless of gender, while ceterosexuality specifically names transgender and nonbinary identity as part of what is being attracted to, a framing some critics argue risks reducing a partner to their gender category rather than describing attraction that simply does not track gender at all. It also sits alongside other gender-based orientation terms such as androsexuality and gynesexuality, which describe attraction organized around masculinity or femininity rather than around binary sex assignment. An older, now-contested predecessor term, transamorous, was likewise proposed for attraction to transgender people before skoliosexual and ceterosexual gained wider circulation, and it too has drawn criticism for the same reasons (The Advocate).

Common misconceptions

A persistent misconception, addressed directly by WebMD's overviews of both terms, is that being ceterosexual or skoliosexual is itself a form of fetishization of transgender or nonbinary people. Both sources are explicit that the orientation describes attraction to a person as a whole partner, not a specialized interest in transgender anatomy (WebMD). Peer-reviewed research supports the distinction empirically: in a 2021 study of 299 transgender and nonbinary adults, 64.2% reported having experienced fetishization, characterized by objectification, dehumanization, and being reduced to specific body parts rather than by consensual romantic or sexual interest, a pattern the researchers treat as categorically different from a genuine orientation toward transgender or nonbinary partners (Anzani et al., 2021). A second, related misconception is that a single settled definition exists; as the History and Terminology sections above note, sources disagree on whether the term is exclusive to attraction toward nonbinary people, inclusive of all transgender people, or usable by nonbinary people describing attraction to other nonbinary people specifically.