Glossary: LGBTQ+ terms

* This list is neither comprehensive nor inviolable, but a continual work in progress. With identity terms, trust the person who is using the term and their definition of it above any dictionary.

1. Agender: a person with no (or very little) connection to the ​ traditional system of gender, no personal alignment with the concepts of either man or woman, and/or someone who sees themselves as existing without gender. Sometimes called gender neutrois, gender neutral, or genderless.

2. Ally: person who supports and respects members of the LGBTQ community. Sometimes re-framed as a verb: “How ​ am I allying myself with x or y community?”

3. Androgynous: a gender expression that has elements of both masculinity and femininity. ​ 4. Asexual: a person who does not have significant sexual attractions. Romantic, emotional, and physical attractions, as ​ well as partnered relationships, may or may not be present.

5. Bisexual: a person who has significant romantic, emotional, physical and sexual attractions to both women and men. ​ May also be framed as attractions to two or more genders. The frequency, intensity, or quality of attraction is not necessarily directed toward both/all genders equally.

6. Cisgender: /“siss-jendur”/ a gender description for when someone’s sex assigned at birth and gender identity ​ ​ ​ ​ correspond in the expected way (e.g., someone who was assigned male at birth, and identifies as a man). A simple way to think about it is if a person is not transgender, they are cisgender. The word cisgender can also be shortened to “cis.”

7. Demisexual: little or no capacity to experience sexual attraction until a strong romantic connection is formed with ​ someone, often within a romantic relationship.

8. Fluid(ity): generally with another term attached, like gender-fluid or fluid-sexuality, fluid(ity) describes an identity ​ that may change or shift over time between or within the mix of the options available (e.g., man and woman, bi and straight).

9. Gay: a man whose primary romantic, emotional, physical and sexual attractions are to other men. This term can also be ​ used to apply to lesbian and bisexual people, and on some occasions can be used as an umbrella term for anyone who is not straight.

10. Gender expression: how one chooses to express one’s gender identity to others through behavior, clothing, hairstyle, ​ voice, body characteristics, etc. Gender expression may change over time and from day to day, and may or may not be related to gender identity.

11. Gender identity: one’s innermost sense of their gender. This conviction is not contingent on the individual’s biological ​ gender/sex.

12. Gender non-conforming: a gender expression descriptor that indicates a non-traditional gender presentation ​ (masculine woman or feminine man).

13. Genderqueer: a rejection of the male/female gender binary in favor of an identity not represented in that binary. This ​ may include gender fluidity, third-gender identity, and/or nonbinary identity, among others.

14. Heteronormativity: the assumption, in individuals and/or in institutions, that everyone is heterosexual and that ​ heterosexuality is superior to all other sexualities. Leads to invisibility and stigmatizing of other sexualities: when learning a woman is married, asking her what her husband’s name is. Heteronormativity also leads us to assume that only masculine men and feminine women are straight.

15. Heterosexual: a person who is emotionally, romantically, or sexually attracted or committed to members of a different ​ gender. Often used to describe men attracted only to women and women attracted only to men. 16. Homosexual: emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attraction to people of the same gender. This term is somewhat ​ clinical and outdated; many prefer the terms “gay,” “lesbian,” or “bisexual” to describe their identities.

17. Intersex: having indeterminate or ambiguous sex characteristics, including genitalia, chromosomes, and/or internal sex ​ organs.

18. Lesbian: a woman whose primary romantic, emotional, physical and sexual attractions are to other women. ​ 19. LGBTQ: the acronym for “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning” The acronym may be expanded ​ to a variation of LGBTQIA to include questioning, queer-identified, intersex, or asexual people, and/or allies. Sometimes people at a + at the end in an effort to be more inclusive.

20. Pansexual: a person who experiences sexual, romantic, physical, and/or spiritual attraction for members of all gender ​ identities/expressions. Often shortened to “pan.”

21. Passing: trans* people being accepted as, or able to “pass for,” a member of their self-identified gender identity ​ (regardless of sex assigned at birth) without being identified as trans*. An LGB/queer individual who is believed to be or perceived as straight.

22. Polyamory (polyamorous): refers to the practice of, desire for, or orientation toward having ethical, honest, and ​ ​ consensual non-monogamous relationships (i.e. relationships that may include multiple partners).

23. Queer: not heterosexual. Originally used with negative connotations, but is currently being reclaimed by many within ​ LGBTQ+ communities. Is sometimes used as an umbrella term for many non-heterosexual identities. Sometimes indicates a politicized LGBTQ+ identity.

24. Questioning: an individual who or time when someone is unsure about or exploring their own sexual orientation or ​ gender identity.

25. Sex: an act or series of acts that humans do as a part of the expression of their sexual nature and their desire for love ​ and affection; also, the identification of biological gender. Biological gender is contentious and amorphous, determined by chromosomes, primary or secondary sex characteristics, hormone processes, and other characteristics.

26. Sex assigned at birth (SAAB): a phrase used to intentionally recognize a person’s assigned sex (not gender identity). ​ “Jenny was assigned male at birth, but identifies as a woman.”

27. Sexual orientation: how one identifies regarding the people to whom one is sexually or romantically attracted. ​ Orientation is not dependent on physical experience, but rather on feelings and attractions.

28. Straight: a person primarily emotionally, physically, and/or sexually attracted to some people who are not their same ​ sex/gender. A more colloquial term for the word heterosexual.

29. Trans*: an umbrella term covering a range of identities that transgress socially-defined gender norms. Trans with an ​ asterisk is often used in written forms (not spoken) to indicate that you are referring to the larger group nature of the term, and specifically including non-binary identities, as well as transgender men (transman - a person who was assigned female at birth and identifies as a man) and transgender women (transwoman - a person who was assigned male at birth and identifies as a woman).

30. Transgender: used both as an umbrella term and as an identity. Broadly, refers to those who do not identify with or are ​ uncomfortable with their assigned gender and gender roles. As an identity, the term often refers to anyone who transgresses traditional sex and gender categories. Transgender people may or may not choose to alter their bodies hormonally and/or surgically. Most accepted term.

31. Transition / transitioning: referring to the process of a transgender person changing aspects of themself (e.g., their ​ appearance, name, pronouns, or making physical changes to their body) to be more congruent with the gender they know themself to be (as opposed to the gender they lived as pre-transitioning).

32. Transphobia: the fear, hatred, or intolerance of people who identify or are perceived as transgender; fear and hatred of ​ all those individuals who transgress, violate or blur the dominant gender categories in a given society.