AGEN­DER 

Describes a per­son who does not iden­ti­fy as male or female or some com­bi­na­tion of male and female. Some agen­der indi­vid­u­als see them­selves as gen­der­less, while oth­ers see them­selves as gen­der neu­tral. 

 ALLY

Describes a per­son who sup­ports, both pub­licly and pri­vate­ly, the LGBTQ com­mu­ni­ty and equal­i­ty in its many forms. Het­ero­sex­u­al and cis­gen­der peo­ple can be allies, as well as indi­vid­u­als from with­in the LGBTQ community. 

 ASEX­U­AL

Describes a per­son who is not sex­u­al­ly attract­ed to oth­ers and has no desire to engage in sex­u­al behav­ior. Asex­u­al­i­ty dif­fers from celiba­cy in that a per­son who is celi­bate is sex­u­al­ly attract­ed to oth­ers but choos­es to abstain from sex. Some­times, asex­u­al is abbre­vi­at­ed as ​“ace.” 

 BIGEN­DER

 Describes a per­son who has two gen­ders. Peo­ple who are bigen­der may expe­ri­ence two gen­der iden­ti­ties at the same time or at dif­fer­ent times. These gen­der iden­ti­ties can be bina­ry — male and female — or include non­bi­na­ry identities. 

BISEX­U­AL

Describes a per­son who is attract­ed to both men and women. A per­son does not need to have had spe­cif­ic sex­u­al expe­ri­ences — or any sex­u­al expe­ri­ence — to iden­ti­fy as bisexual. 

CIS­GEN­DER

Describes a per­son whose gen­der iden­ti­ty match­es the sex — male or female — orig­i­nal­ly iden­ti­fied on their birth cer­tifi­cate (i.e., peo­ple who are not trans­gen­der). Cis­gen­der, which is pro­nounced sis-gen­der, describes only a person’s gen­der iden­ti­ty — not their sex­u­al or roman­tic attrac­tions. Some­times, cis­gen­der is abbre­vi­at­ed as ​“cis” in casu­al conversation. 

COM­ING OUT

Describes the process of a per­son first com­ing to under­stand their own sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion, then reveal­ing it to oth­ers. How­ev­er, it is not nec­es­sary to have sex­u­al expe­ri­ences or to even tell oth­ers in order to come out. One may be out to just one’s self. Com­ing out is often cor­re­lat­ed with rates of youth home­less­ness. 

ENBY

Describes a per­son who does not iden­ti­fy as exclu­sive­ly male or exclu­sive­ly female and usu­al­ly prefers​“they” as a pro­noun. Enby is the pho­net­ic pro­nun­ci­a­tion of​“NB,” which stands for non­bi­na­ry. Not all non­bi­na­ry indi­vid­u­als pre­fer or use this term. 

 GAY

Describes a per­son who is attract­ed, emo­tion­al­ly and/​or phys­i­cal­ly, to some­one of the same gen­der. The term can be used by men, women or indi­vid­u­als who iden­ti­fy as non­bi­na­ry. A per­son does not need a spe­cif­ic sex­u­al expe­ri­ence — or any sex­u­al expe­ri­ence — to iden­ti­fy as gay. 

GEN­DER

 A social con­struct used to clas­si­fy a per­son as a man, woman or some oth­er iden­ti­ty. Fun­da­men­tal­ly dif­fer­ent from sex assigned at birth, gen­der is often close­ly relat­ed to the role that a per­son plays or is expect­ed to play in society. 

GEN­DER AFFIRM­ING SURGERY

 A sur­gi­cal pro­ce­dure that enables an individual’s body to be more con­gru­ent with their gen­der iden­ti­ty. Also referred to as sex reas­sign­ment surgery or gen­der con­firm­ing surgery. 

 QUEER

An adjec­tive used by some peo­ple, par­tic­u­lar­ly younger peo­ple, whose sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion is not exclu­sive­ly het­ero­sex­u­al. Queer was once used a pejo­ra­tive term and has been reclaimed by some — but not all — mem­bers of the LGBTQ community. 

  QUES­TION­ING

Describes a per­son who is still dis­cov­er­ing and explor­ing their sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion, gen­der iden­ti­ty, gen­der expres­sion or some com­bi­na­tion there­of. Using this term enables an indi­vid­ual to iden­ti­fy as part of the LGBTQ com­mu­ni­ty while avoid­ing oth­er labels and rec­og­niz­ing that their process of self-iden­ti­­fi­­ca­­tion is still underway 

 SEX

 The clas­si­fi­ca­tion of a per­son as male or female. At birth, babies are assigned a sex that typ­i­cal­ly cor­re­sponds with their exter­nal anato­my. Yet an individual’s sex is influ­enced by a larg­er com­bi­na­tion of fac­tors, includ­ing their chro­mo­somes, genes, hor­mones, repro­duc­tive organs and sec­ondary sex characteristics. 

  SEX­U­AL ORIENTATION

 An endur­ing emo­tion­al and/​or phys­i­cal attrac­tion (or non-attrac­­tion) to oth­er peo­ple. Sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion is flu­id and encom­pass­es a vari­ety of labels, includ­ing gay, les­bian, het­ero­sex­u­al, bisex­u­al, pan­sex­u­al and asexual. 

 SOGIE

An acronym for sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion, gen­der iden­ti­ty and gen­der expres­sion. Every per­son has a sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion, gen­der iden­ti­ty and gen­der expression. 

 STRAIGHT

Describes a man who is attract­ed to women or a woman who is attract­ed to men. Can be used as a syn­onym for heterosexual. 

   TRANS­GEN­DER

 Describes a per­son whose gen­der iden­ti­ty and/​or gen­der expres­sion do not match their assigned sex at birth. Trans­gen­der peo­ple may be straight, les­bian, gay, bisex­u­al or queer. 

 TRANS­GEN­DER (OR TRANS) MAN

Describes a per­son who was assigned female sex at birth but iden­ti­fies as male. This per­son may or may not active­ly iden­ti­fy as trans. 

TRANS­GEN­DER (OR TRANS) WOMAN

Describes a per­son who was assigned a male sex at birth but iden­ti­fies as female. This per­son may or may not active­ly iden­ti­fy as trans.

TRAN­SI­TION

A com­plex process by which trans­gen­der peo­ple align their anato­my (med­ical tran­si­tion) and gen­der expres­sion (social tran­si­tion) with their gen­der iden­ti­ty. Tran­si­tion­ing is a mul­ti­­ple-step process that occurs over a long peri­od of time. It can include such steps as using a dif­fer­ent name, using new pro­nouns, dress­ing dif­fer­ent­ly, updat­ing legal doc­u­ments, hor­mone ther­a­py and surgery. The exact steps involved in a person’s tran­si­tion varies. 

 TWO SPIR­IT

Describes a per­son who iden­ti­fies as hav­ing both a mas­cu­line and a fem­i­nine spir­it. It is used by some Native Amer­i­can and Alas­ka Native peo­ple to describe their sex­u­al, gen­der and/​or spir­i­tu­al iden­ti­ty. It may encom­pass same-sex attrac­tion and also include rela­tion­ships that could be con­sid­ered poly. ­