Glossary

Key Terms

Ally: A person who is actively supportive of the LGBTQ community.

Asexual: a broad term for people who experience little to no sexual attraction to other people. 

Bisexual: A person who is physical, romantic, and/or emotionally attracted to more than one gender or gender identity. Sometimes interchangeable with Pansexual.

Cisgender: A person whose gender identity aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth.

Gay: A person who identifies as a man who is physical, romantic, and/or emotionally attracted to other men. 

Gender: Characteristics of a person that society constructs and associates with perceived biological sex. This includes social and societal norms, roles, and characteristics assigned to being a man or woman. 

Gender Attribution: The gender society assigns a person based on perceived gender.

Gender Expression: How a person externally expresses their gender identity, through clothes, hairstyles, and physical appearance.

Gender Identity: A person's internal understanding of their own gender.

Heterosexual: A person who is physical, romantic, and/or emotionally attracted to the opposite gender/gender identity. 

Intersex: An umbrella term for people born with reproductive anatomy, and/or chromosome abnormalities that cannot be classified as typical male or female.

Lesbian: A person who identifies as a woman who is physical, romantic, and/or emotionally attracted to other women. 

LGBTQ: Acronym for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer used to describe the LGBTQ community as a whole. It can also be referred to as LGBT, or LGBTQ+.  

Nonbinary: A umbrella term for a person whose gender identity is not exclusively defined as a man or woman. A nonbinary person may identify as both a man and a woman, somewhere in the middle, or completely outside the gender binary. Can also be referred to as Genderqueer. 

Pansexual: A person who is physical, romantic, and/or emotionally attracted to a person regardless of gender or gender identity. Sometimes interchangeable with Bisexual.

Queer: A umbrella term for anyone who is not cisgender and heterosexual. Queer was once a slur but has since been reclaimed by the community.

Questioning: A person who is unsure of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Sex assigned at birth: The sex, often male, female, or intersex, that a medical professional assigns to a person when they are born based on their external anatomy.

Sexual Orientation: A person's inherent and enduring emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attraction to another person. Interchangeable with Sexuality

Transgender: A umbrella term for people whose gender identity conflicts with the sex they were assigned at birth. Many transgender people transition to align their gender expression with their gender identity.

Transitioning: The social, legal, or medical process transgender individuals take in order to align their gender expression, gender attribution, or sex with their gender identity.