The word fluid has been used for decades and perhaps centuries to refer to someone's sexuality as being non-stationary or not static. In an effort to create a term that could be used to align bi, pan, omni, and polysexual people in unity instead of separation and irritation due to the constant in-fighting seen online surrounding definitions of those labels, "fluid" was created. In the same way that "gay" meant a homosexual man or woman, "fluid" meant a bisexual person, or a pansexual person, or a person with a fluid sexuality. It is a separate word from sexually fluid which means changeable. "Fluid", in the sense that Fluid Array Foundation uses it, means not static in your sexuality or a person whose sexual orientation is one that is non-stationary, but moves and flows towards many and any gender.

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It didn't really catch on and we didn't want to be the gender police or gatekeep, so it's included in the name of the org but now for a different reason.

At Fluid Array Foundation we encourage our members to create new lingo just for our community. Vibrant new words enrich the community and empower the individual.

When referring to the community of people who use labels such as pansexual, polysexual, fluid, omnisexual, plurasexual, bisexual, ambisexual, multi gender attracted, multi gender loving, multisexual, open, sexually fluid, non-monosexual queer, and flexi, and even people who are more attracted to gender characteristics of every sex and gender such as androsexuals and gynosexuals, we refer to that community as the fluid array and when talking to someone in the fluid array about their sexual orientation, we say "your sexual orientation".

However, when we feel it necessary to use less-inclusive language or language that is more familiar to the average reader (the world at large) we will refer to the community as the bi community, the bi+ community or bi plus community, and our favorite: the bi/pan/MGA/fluid/mspec community.

NOTE: We recognize the importance of the words bi and bisexual, the historical significance of it, and important position it has earned within the greater LGBT community. We recognize the countless hours and hard work bi people have put in, to find a voice at the table, to be included in society, and to establish our own community within the broader LGBTQ+ community, helping others like us. Having said that, we will be using the words bi and bisexual to describe our community in the following paragraphs.

We've discovered and created new words over the years for bi men, bi women, & bi non-binary people. The reasoning behind this is so we don't have to write out the phrases "bisexual men, bisexual women, and bisexual non-binary people" and because we feel there needs to be specific language to describe us in one word, as bisexual men, as bisexual women, and as bisexual people with non-binary genders, just as our gay and lesbian siblings have done. We feel that by having unique words for us, we will also be taken more seriously within both LGBTQ+ and heteronormative spaces.

Here's a bit of history: Within the homosexual community, the phrase homosexual man became gay; the phrase homosexual woman became lesbian. Less clinical phrases were passed over for better words to describe these two groups and are now recognized the world over. Bisexual men, bisexual women, and bisexual people with  non-binary genders as individual groups each have unique issues they face within those gender groupings. Were it not so, there would not be so many online and in-person discussion groups for these three individual bi groups. Therefore, it makes sense for these three groups within the bi community to have their own unique names. And as stated before, the world also seems to take people more seriously when there's a sole and distinct name for something.

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As of April 2023, we have started to use the word dilly for a bi or pan or fluid man. In the dictionary, dilly means "someone who is remarkable or unusual". It is an old word and isn't in current usage and fits the remarkableness and/or unusualness of a man being bi or pan or fluid. We feel it suits bi or pan or fluid men perfectly.

Examples of the use of dilly are: "Jamal is a dilly. That means he's omnisexual." and "The guys went out to the dilly tavern last night and hooked up with some dillies." and "I'm a dilly, but my boyfriend is gay." or "I'm dilly but my girlfriend's straight."

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We were using the word bent for bi/pan/fluid/mspec+ men since late June 2022, and now we have dedicated it to mean exclusively a bi man, and to reference his bisexuality. Bent is short for "bisexual gentleman" or even shorter for "bi gent".

You can use it in phrases like: "My boyfriend is gay, but I'm a bent." or "He's bent, but he's shy so he doesn't really date." and "Bents and gays will soon be able to donate blood, the news said."

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Bent is used as both a noun and an adjective, but there are some caveats. Bent is mainly used as a noun to describe the person by their gender, by them being bi themselves, but not solely their sexual orientation. So, you would say someone is a bent, but you wouldn't say that their sexual orientation is bent. But, you can say someone is bent, if they are both a man and bisexual. Their sexual orientation would be bi and not bent. Bent is not meant to replace the sexual orientation bisexual .

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Example: "Chuck is a bent. That means he's bisexual." or "Rashad told me today that he's a bent. I didn't even know that he was bisexual."

In using this word, we also wanted to reclaim a slur directed towards bi and gay (and even straight and ace) men and boys. Bent had been hurled at boys and men, in general, for decades. It is rarely heard today and it doesn't share quite the same sting as other slurs, but we do recognize its problematic history. Gay men also use this word in a reclamation capacity. And it still can be used by gay men, of course, but for bi men, it's empowering to use this word directly and exclusively. For bi men, it's its own unique word, separate from the one gay men use, and separate in meaning. It is also separate from any other usage of the word bent.

UPDATE: Because we've recently learned that other bi people who are not men also use this word to describe themselves, we include this word for everyone within the bi community. Example: "I'm bent AF", she said or "Get the party started because the bents have arrived at Pride". We could even get classy by saying that, in this instance,  bent would stand for "the bi gentry" and even the "bi gente" ("gente" being Spanish for "folk" or "people").

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