NBLW
Nonbinary loving women: a nonbinary person attracted to women.
NBLW stands for nonbinary loving women. It describes a [[nonbinary|nonbinary]] person who is attracted to women, and it follows the same pattern as [[wlw|WLW]] and MLM: your own gender first, then L for loving, then the gender you are drawn to.
As with the rest of the set, the attraction does not have to be exclusive. It says where attraction goes, not that it goes nowhere else.
It means the same thing as [[trixic|trixic]], which does the job in a single word. Both exist for the same reason: lesbian and sapphic can carry an assumption about the speaker's own gender that a nonbinary person may not want to make. NBLW sidesteps that by putting nonbinary right at the front.
It is not a correction aimed at nonbinary lesbians. Some people who are not women still find that lesbian is the word that describes them, and they use it. NBLW is an option for people who want something plainer, not a rule for those who do not.
The same grammar gives NBLM for nonbinary people attracted to men, also called [[toric|toric]], and NBLNB for nonbinary people attracted to other nonbinary people.
NBLW is not a rival to nonbinary lesbian
The acronym is sometimes read as a verdict: that nonbinary people should stop calling themselves lesbians. It is not one. People use whichever word describes them, and some use both.
The opposite misreading treats attraction to women as a clue that the person must really be a man or a woman. Attraction says nothing about the speaker's own gender, which is exactly why the acronym states that gender first.
Saying it well
Say this
- I am NBLW.
- Nonbinary, and I love women.
- NBLW, or trixic if you want one word.
- NBLW, and not exclusively.
Not this
- So you are basically a lesbian
- So you are really a woman
- Pick lesbian or nonbinary
- That is too many letters to take seriously
Questions people actually ask
What does NBLW mean?
Nonbinary loving women: a nonbinary person who is attracted to women, not necessarily exclusively.
Is NBLW the same as trixic?
Yes, they describe the same thing. Trixic is the single-word version.
Can nonbinary people be lesbians?
Some nonbinary people use lesbian and mean it. NBLW is an alternative for those who prefer a word that makes no claim about their own gender.
What do the letters stand for?
NB for nonbinary, L for loving, W for women. The first part is your gender, the last part is who you are attracted to.