LGBT+ Term Dictionary
This list is compiled from several different sites. It includes slang and casual terms used in the LGBT community as well as official terms. Please forgive any errors or omissions.
Affirmed gender: The gender to which someone has transitioned. This term is often used to replace terms like “new gender” or “chosen gender,” which imply that the current gender was not always a person’s gender or that their gender was chosen rather than simply in existence.
AFAB/AMAB: Assigned female at birth/assigned male at birth
Agender: A person who does not conform to any gender.
Ally: A term used to describe someone who does not identify as LGBTQ but who is supportive of LGBTQ equality in its many forms and through a wide variety of different expressions, both personal and private.
Androgynous: A non-binary gender identity, having both male and female characteristics. Can be used to describe people’s appearances or clothing.
Androsexual/Androphilic: attracted to males, men, and/or masculinity.
Asexual: A person who does not experience sexual attraction. This term is a self-identity.
Assigned Gender Role: At birth, an assigned gender is determined by appearance of sexual anatomy. This determines the role a child is raised in either Male or Female. Documented by a doctor who assists in the birth.
Assigned Sex: The sex (male, female, intersex) that is assigned to an infant at birth.
Bicurious: A curiosity about having sexual relations with a same gender/sex person.
Binary Gender: a traditional and outdated view of gender, limiting possibilities to “man” and “woman.”
Binary Sex: a traditional and outdated view of sex, limiting possibilities to “female” or “male.”
Binding: The process of flattening one’s breasts to have a more masculine or flat appearing chest.
Biological Sex: the physical anatomy and gendered hormones one is born with, generally described as male, female, or intersex, and often confused with gender.
Biphobia: Aversion toward bisexuality and bisexual people as a social group or as individuals. People of any sexual orientation can experience such feelings of aversion. Biphobia is a source of discrimination against bisexuals, and may be based on negative bisexual stereotypes or irrational fear.
Bisexual (Bi): An individual who is emotionally, romantically, and/or physically attracted to men and women. This is sometimes shortened to “bi.” People who are bisexual need not have had equal sexual experience with both men and women and need not have had any sexual experience at all; it is attraction that determines orientation.
Bottom Surgery: Surgery on the genitals designed to create a body in harmony with a person’s preferred gender expression.
Butch: A person who identifies themselves as masculine, whether it be physically, mentally or emotionally. ‘Butch’ is sometimes used as a derogatory term for lesbians, but it can also be claimed as an affirmative identity label.
Cisgender (Cis): A term used to describe an individual whose gender identity aligns with the one typically associated with the sex assigned to them at birth. This is a term that is preferable to “non-trans,” “biological,” or “natal” man or woman.
Closeted: Describes a person who is not open about their sexual orientation, or an ally who is not open about their support for people who are LGBTQ.
Coming Out: For people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, the process of self-acceptance that continues throughout one’s life. People often establish a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender identity to themselves first and then may decide to reveal it to others. Coming out can also apply to the family and allies of people who are LGBT. There are many different degrees of being out: some may be out to friends only, some may be out publicly, and some may be out only to themselves. It’s important to remember that not everyone is in the same place when it comes to being out, and to respect where each person is in that process of self-identification. It is up to each person, individually, to decide if and when to come out or disclose.
Cross-Dressing: wearing clothing that conflicts with the traditional gender expression of your sex and gender identity (e.g., a man wearing a dress) for any one of many reasons, including relaxation, fun, and sexual gratification; often conflated with transsexuality.
Disclosure: The act or process of revealing one’s transgender or gender nonconforming identity to another person in a specific instance. Related to, but not the same as, coming out.
Drag King: a person who consciously performs “masculinity,” usually in a show or theatre setting, presenting an exaggerated form of masculine expression, often times done by a woman; often confused with “transsexual” or “transvestite”
Drag Queen: a person who consciously performs “femininity,” usually in a show or theatre setting, presenting an exaggerated form of feminine expression, often times done by a man; often confused with “transsexual” or “transvestite”
Effeminate: Term used often in negative context, to identify a person usually of male origin who expresses or presents what are stereotypically considered feminine characteristics.
Femme: Feminine identified and/or presenting person of any gender/sex.
Fluid(ity): generally with another term attached, like gender-fluid or fluid-sexuality, fluid(ity) describes an identity that is a fluctuating mix of the options available (e.g., man and woman, gay and straight); not to be confused with “transitioning”
FTM / F2M: Abbreviation for female-to-male transgender or transsexual person.
Gaff: A type of panty designed to hide the male bulge by tucking it away in a pocket or pouch within it so as to hold the penis between the legs giving the appearance that there is no penis at all.
Gay: The adjective used to describe people whose emotional, romantic, and/or physical attraction is to people of the same sex (e.g., gay man, gay people). In contemporary contexts, “lesbian” is often a preferred term for women. People who are gay need not have had any sexual experience; it is the attraction that helps determine orientation.
Gender: A set of social, psychological, or emotional traits, often influenced by societal expectations that classify an individual as either feminine or masculine.
Gender Affirming Surgery: Surgical procedures that help people adjust their bodies in a way that more closely matches their gender identity. Not every transgender person will desire or have resources for surgery.
Gender Bender: (Gender Blender) Term used for a person who merges characteristics of all genders either in subtle ways or whom intentionally flaunts merged or blurred cultural stereotypical gender norms for purpose of shocking others, without a concern for passing.
Gender Binary: The concept that there are only two genders, male and female, and that everyone must be one or the other.
Gender Confirming Surgery: Medical surgeries used to modify one’s body to be more congruent with one’s gender identity. See Gender Affirming Surgery, Sex Reassignment Surgery
Gender Cues: What human beings use to attempt to tell the gender/sex of another person. Examples include hairstyle, gait, vocal inflection, body shape, facial hair, etc. Cues vary by culture.
Gender Expression: The manner in which a person chooses to communicate their gender identity to others through external means such as clothing and/or mannerisms. This communication may be conscious or subconscious and may or may not reflect their gender identity or sexual orientation. While most people’s understandings of gender expressions relate to masculinity and femininity, there are countless combinations that may incorporate both masculine and feminine expressions—or neither— through androgynous expressions. The important thing to remember and respect is that every gender expression is valid.
Gender Identity: One’s deeply held personal, internal sense of being male, female, some of both, or neither. One’s gender identity does not always correspond to biological sex (i.e., a person assigned female at birth identifies as male or a person assigned male a birth identifies as female). Awareness of gender identity is usually experienced in infancy and reinforced in adolescence.
Genderless: a person who does not identify with any gender.
Gender Neutral: Not gendered. Can refer to language (including pronouns), spaces (like bathrooms), or identities (being genderqueer, for example).
Gender Non-Conforming: A person who views their gender identity as one of many possible genders beyond strictly female or male. This is an umbrella term that can encompass other terms such as “gender creative,” “gender expansive,” “gender variant,” “genderqueer,” “gender fluid”, “gender neutral,” “bigender,” “androgynous,” or “gender diverse.” Such people feel that they exist psychologically between genders, as on a spectrum, or beyond the notion of the male and female binary paradigm.
Gender Normative: A person who by nature or by choice conforms to gender based expectations of society. (Also referred to as ‘Genderstraight’.)
Genderqueer: (1) a blanket term used to describe people whose gender falls outside of the gender binary; (2) a person who identifies as both a man and a woman, or as neither a man nor a woman; often used in exchange with “transgender”
Gender Therapist: A Licensed Therapist who follows the HBIGDA (Wpath) Transgender Standards of Care. Encourages legal prescription hormone use prescribed usually by an Endocrinologist with a letter recommendation by the therapist.
Gender Variant: A term, often used to describe children and youth, that describes those who dress, behave, or express themselves in a way that does not confirm with dominant gender norms. Some people do not use this term because they feel it suggests these identities are abnormal. (See gender nonconforming.)
Genetic female (GF), genetic woman (GW), or genetic girl (GG): A non-transgender female or aka a cisgender female.
Genetic male (GM): A non-transgender male or aka a cisgender male.
Gynesexual/Gynephilic: attracted to females, women, and/or femininity
Hermaphrodite: an outdated medical term used to describe someone who is intersex; not used today as it is considered to be medically stigmatizing, and also misleading as it means a person who is 100% male and female, a biological impossibility for humans
Heteronormativity: The assumption, in individuals or in institutions, that everyone is heterosexual, and that heterosexuality is superior to homosexuality and bisexuality.
Heterosexism: behavior that grants preferential treatment to heterosexual people, reinforces the idea that heterosexuality is somehow better or more “right” than queerness, or ignores/doesn’t address queerness as existing.
Heterosexual: a medical definition for a person who is attracted to someone with the other gender (or, literally, biological sex) than they have; often referred to as “straight”.
Heterosexual Privilege: Those benefits derived automatically by being heterosexual that are denied to homosexuals and bisexuals. Also, the benefits homosexuals and bisexuals receive as a result of claiming heterosexual identity or denying homosexual or bisexual identity.
HIV Phobia: The irrational fear or hatred of persons living with HIV/AIDS.
Homophobia: fear, anger, intolerance, resentment, or discomfort with queer people, often focused inwardly as one begins to question their own sexuality.
Homosexual: An outdated clinical term often considered derogatory and offensive, as opposed to the preferred terms, “gay” and “lesbian.”
Intersex: a person with a set of sexual anatomy that doesn’t fit within the labels of female or male (e.g., 47,XXY phenotype, uterus, and penis)
In the closet: Describes a person who keeps their sexual orientation or gender identity a secret from some or all people.
Lesbian: A woman whose emotional, romantic, and/or physical attraction is to other women. People who are lesbians need not have had any sexual experience; it is the attraction that helps determine orientation.
LGBT/LGBTA/LGBTQ: An acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender which refers to these individuals collectively. It is sometimes stated as “GLBT” (gay, lesbian, bi, and transgender). Occasionally, the acronym is stated as “LGBTA” to include allies, “LGBTQ,” with “Q” representing queer or questioning.
LGBPTTQQIIAA+: any combination of letters attempting to represent all the identities in the queer community, this near-exhaustive one (but not exhaustive) represents Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Pansexual, Transgender, Transsexual, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Intergender, Asexual, Agender
Lifestyle: A negative term often incorrectly used to describe the lives of people who are LGBTQ. The term is disliked because it implies that being LGBTQ is a choice. Try using LGBTQ lives instead.
Metrosexual: First used in 1994 by British journalist Mark Simpson, who coined the term to refer to an urban, heterosexual male with a strong aesthetic sense who spends a great deal of time and money on his appearance and lifestyle. This term can be perceived as derogatory because it reinforces stereotypes that all gay men are fashion-conscious and materialistic.
MTF / M2F: Abbreviation for male-to-female transgender or transsexual person.
Non-binary: Non-binary (sometimes referred to as genderqueer) is an umbrella term for gender identites that are not exclusively masculine or feminine. Someone who considers themselve outside the gender binary and cisnormativity.
Out: Describes people who openly self-identify as LGBTQ in their public and/or professional lives.
Outing [someone]: when someone reveals another person’s sexuality or gender identity to an individual or group, often without the person’s consent or approval; not to be confused with “coming out”
Packing: Wearing a phallic device on the groin and under clothing for any purposes including: (for someone without a biological penis) the validation or confirmation of one’s masculine gender identity; seduction; and/or sexual readiness (for one who likes to penetrate another during sexual intercourse).
Pangender: A person whose gender identity is comprised of all or many gender expressions.
Pansexual: a person who experiences sexual, romantic, physical, and/or spiritual attraction for members of all gender identities/expressions.
Passing: Describes a person's ability to be accepted as their preferred gender/sex or race/ethnic identity or to be seen as heterosexual.
Polyamory: Refers to having honest, usually non-possessive, relationships with multiple partners and can include: open relationships, polyfidelity (which involves multiple romantic relationships with sexual contact restricted to those), and sub relationships (which denote distinguishing between a ‘primary" relationship or relationships and various "secondary" relationships).
Prejudice: A conscious or unconscious negative belief about a whole group of people and its individual members.
Queer: A term currently used by some people—particularly youth— to describe themselves and/or their community. Some value the term for its defiance, some like it because it can be inclusive of the entire community, and others find it to be an appropriate term to describe their more fluid identities. Traditionally a negative or pejorative term for people who are gay, “queer” is disliked by some within the LGBT community, who find it offensive. Due to its varying meanings, this word should only be used when self-identifying or quoting someone who self-identifies as queer (i.e. “My cousin self-identifies as queer.”)
Questioning: A term used to describe those who are in a process of discovery and exploration about their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or a combination thereof.
Same Gender Loving (SGL): a phrase coined by the African American/Black queer communities used as an alternative for “gay” and “lesbian” by people who may see those as terms of the White queer community.
Sex: Refers to biological, genetic, or physical characteristics that define males and females. These can include genitalia, hormone levels, genes, or secondary sex characteristics. Sex is often compared or interchanged with gender, which is thought of as more social and less biological, though there is some considerable overlap.
Sexual Orientation: Emotional, romantic, or sexual feelings toward other people. People who are straight experience these feelings primarily for people of the opposite sex. People who are gay or lesbian experience these feelings primarily for people of the same sex. People who are bisexual experience these feelings for people of both sexes. And people who are asexual experience no sexual attraction at all. Other terms describing sexual orientation include (but are not limited to) pansexual and polysexual. Sexual orientation is part of the human condition, while sexual behavior involves the choices one makes in acting on one’s sexual orientation. One’s sexual activity does not define who one is with regard to one’s sexual orientation; it is the attraction that determines their orientation.
Sexual Preference: (1) often incorrectly interchanged with the term “sexual orientation,” creating an illusion that one has a choice (or “preference”) in who they are attracted to; (2) the types of sexual intercourse, stimulation, and gratification one likes to receive and participate in.
Sexual Reassignment Surgery (SRS): A term used by some medical professionals to refer to a group of surgical options that alter a person’s “sex”. In most states, one or multiple surgeries are required to achieve legal recognition of gender variance. (a.k.a gender affirming or gender confirming surgery.)
Skoliosexual: attracted to genderqueer and transsexual people and expressions (people who aren’t identified as cisgender).
Straight: a man or woman who is attracted to people of the other binary gender than themselves; often referred to as “heterosexual”
Stealth: A term used to describe transgender individuals who do not disclose their trans status in their public lives.
Third Gender: (1) a person who does not identify with the traditional genders of “man” or “woman,” but identifies with another gender; (2) the gender category available in societies that recognize three or more genders
TGNC: Acronym which stands for transgender and gender nonconforming. Often used when talking about groups of people with diverse gender identities.
Top Surgery: This term usually refers to surgery for the construction of a male-type chest, but may also refer to breast augmentation.
Transactivism: The political and social movement to create equality for gender variant persons.
Transgender: A term that may be used to describe people whose gender expression does not conform to the cultural norms and/or whose gender identity is different from their sex assigned at birth. Transgender is also considered by some to be an “umbrella term” that encompasses a number of identities which transcend the conventional expectations of gender identity and expression, including FTM, MTF, genderqueer, and gender expansive. People who identify as transgender may or may not decide to alter their bodies hormonally and/or surgically to match their gender identity (see transsexual.)
Transition: The process one goes through to discover and/or affirm their gender identity. This can, but does not always, include taking hormones, having surgeries, or going through therapy.
Trans man: a person who was assigned a female sex at birth, but identifies as a man
Transsexual: A term used to describe those who have undergone some form of gender-related surgery. Some people who identify as transsexual do not identify as transgender and vice versa.
Trans woman: a person who was assigned a male sex at birth, but identifies as a woman
Two-Spirit: a term traditionally used by Native American people to recognize individuals who possess qualities or fulfill roles of both genders
Tucking: The technique of hiding male genitals so that they do not cause an embarrassing bulge under female clothing.
Ze / Hir: Alternate pronouns that are gender neutral and preferred by some gender variant persons. Pronounced /zee/ and /here,/ they replace “he”/”she” and “his”/”hers” respectively.
Sources: PFLAG Glossary, Comprehensive* List of LGBT+ Vocabulary Definitions, UCLA LGBTQ Terminology, Laura's Playground Transgender Resources
Affirmed gender: The gender to which someone has transitioned. This term is often used to replace terms like “new gender” or “chosen gender,” which imply that the current gender was not always a person’s gender or that their gender was chosen rather than simply in existence.
AFAB/AMAB: Assigned female at birth/assigned male at birth
Agender: A person who does not conform to any gender.
Ally: A term used to describe someone who does not identify as LGBTQ but who is supportive of LGBTQ equality in its many forms and through a wide variety of different expressions, both personal and private.
Androgynous: A non-binary gender identity, having both male and female characteristics. Can be used to describe people’s appearances or clothing.
Androsexual/Androphilic: attracted to males, men, and/or masculinity.
Asexual: A person who does not experience sexual attraction. This term is a self-identity.
Assigned Gender Role: At birth, an assigned gender is determined by appearance of sexual anatomy. This determines the role a child is raised in either Male or Female. Documented by a doctor who assists in the birth.
Assigned Sex: The sex (male, female, intersex) that is assigned to an infant at birth.
Bicurious: A curiosity about having sexual relations with a same gender/sex person.
Binary Gender: a traditional and outdated view of gender, limiting possibilities to “man” and “woman.”
Binary Sex: a traditional and outdated view of sex, limiting possibilities to “female” or “male.”
Binding: The process of flattening one’s breasts to have a more masculine or flat appearing chest.
Biological Sex: the physical anatomy and gendered hormones one is born with, generally described as male, female, or intersex, and often confused with gender.
Biphobia: Aversion toward bisexuality and bisexual people as a social group or as individuals. People of any sexual orientation can experience such feelings of aversion. Biphobia is a source of discrimination against bisexuals, and may be based on negative bisexual stereotypes or irrational fear.
Bisexual (Bi): An individual who is emotionally, romantically, and/or physically attracted to men and women. This is sometimes shortened to “bi.” People who are bisexual need not have had equal sexual experience with both men and women and need not have had any sexual experience at all; it is attraction that determines orientation.
Bottom Surgery: Surgery on the genitals designed to create a body in harmony with a person’s preferred gender expression.
Butch: A person who identifies themselves as masculine, whether it be physically, mentally or emotionally. ‘Butch’ is sometimes used as a derogatory term for lesbians, but it can also be claimed as an affirmative identity label.
Cisgender (Cis): A term used to describe an individual whose gender identity aligns with the one typically associated with the sex assigned to them at birth. This is a term that is preferable to “non-trans,” “biological,” or “natal” man or woman.
Closeted: Describes a person who is not open about their sexual orientation, or an ally who is not open about their support for people who are LGBTQ.
Coming Out: For people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, the process of self-acceptance that continues throughout one’s life. People often establish a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender identity to themselves first and then may decide to reveal it to others. Coming out can also apply to the family and allies of people who are LGBT. There are many different degrees of being out: some may be out to friends only, some may be out publicly, and some may be out only to themselves. It’s important to remember that not everyone is in the same place when it comes to being out, and to respect where each person is in that process of self-identification. It is up to each person, individually, to decide if and when to come out or disclose.
Cross-Dressing: wearing clothing that conflicts with the traditional gender expression of your sex and gender identity (e.g., a man wearing a dress) for any one of many reasons, including relaxation, fun, and sexual gratification; often conflated with transsexuality.
Disclosure: The act or process of revealing one’s transgender or gender nonconforming identity to another person in a specific instance. Related to, but not the same as, coming out.
Drag King: a person who consciously performs “masculinity,” usually in a show or theatre setting, presenting an exaggerated form of masculine expression, often times done by a woman; often confused with “transsexual” or “transvestite”
Drag Queen: a person who consciously performs “femininity,” usually in a show or theatre setting, presenting an exaggerated form of feminine expression, often times done by a man; often confused with “transsexual” or “transvestite”
Effeminate: Term used often in negative context, to identify a person usually of male origin who expresses or presents what are stereotypically considered feminine characteristics.
Femme: Feminine identified and/or presenting person of any gender/sex.
Fluid(ity): generally with another term attached, like gender-fluid or fluid-sexuality, fluid(ity) describes an identity that is a fluctuating mix of the options available (e.g., man and woman, gay and straight); not to be confused with “transitioning”
FTM / F2M: Abbreviation for female-to-male transgender or transsexual person.
Gaff: A type of panty designed to hide the male bulge by tucking it away in a pocket or pouch within it so as to hold the penis between the legs giving the appearance that there is no penis at all.
Gay: The adjective used to describe people whose emotional, romantic, and/or physical attraction is to people of the same sex (e.g., gay man, gay people). In contemporary contexts, “lesbian” is often a preferred term for women. People who are gay need not have had any sexual experience; it is the attraction that helps determine orientation.
Gender: A set of social, psychological, or emotional traits, often influenced by societal expectations that classify an individual as either feminine or masculine.
Gender Affirming Surgery: Surgical procedures that help people adjust their bodies in a way that more closely matches their gender identity. Not every transgender person will desire or have resources for surgery.
Gender Bender: (Gender Blender) Term used for a person who merges characteristics of all genders either in subtle ways or whom intentionally flaunts merged or blurred cultural stereotypical gender norms for purpose of shocking others, without a concern for passing.
Gender Binary: The concept that there are only two genders, male and female, and that everyone must be one or the other.
Gender Confirming Surgery: Medical surgeries used to modify one’s body to be more congruent with one’s gender identity. See Gender Affirming Surgery, Sex Reassignment Surgery
Gender Cues: What human beings use to attempt to tell the gender/sex of another person. Examples include hairstyle, gait, vocal inflection, body shape, facial hair, etc. Cues vary by culture.
Gender Expression: The manner in which a person chooses to communicate their gender identity to others through external means such as clothing and/or mannerisms. This communication may be conscious or subconscious and may or may not reflect their gender identity or sexual orientation. While most people’s understandings of gender expressions relate to masculinity and femininity, there are countless combinations that may incorporate both masculine and feminine expressions—or neither— through androgynous expressions. The important thing to remember and respect is that every gender expression is valid.
Gender Identity: One’s deeply held personal, internal sense of being male, female, some of both, or neither. One’s gender identity does not always correspond to biological sex (i.e., a person assigned female at birth identifies as male or a person assigned male a birth identifies as female). Awareness of gender identity is usually experienced in infancy and reinforced in adolescence.
Genderless: a person who does not identify with any gender.
Gender Neutral: Not gendered. Can refer to language (including pronouns), spaces (like bathrooms), or identities (being genderqueer, for example).
Gender Non-Conforming: A person who views their gender identity as one of many possible genders beyond strictly female or male. This is an umbrella term that can encompass other terms such as “gender creative,” “gender expansive,” “gender variant,” “genderqueer,” “gender fluid”, “gender neutral,” “bigender,” “androgynous,” or “gender diverse.” Such people feel that they exist psychologically between genders, as on a spectrum, or beyond the notion of the male and female binary paradigm.
Gender Normative: A person who by nature or by choice conforms to gender based expectations of society. (Also referred to as ‘Genderstraight’.)
Genderqueer: (1) a blanket term used to describe people whose gender falls outside of the gender binary; (2) a person who identifies as both a man and a woman, or as neither a man nor a woman; often used in exchange with “transgender”
Gender Therapist: A Licensed Therapist who follows the HBIGDA (Wpath) Transgender Standards of Care. Encourages legal prescription hormone use prescribed usually by an Endocrinologist with a letter recommendation by the therapist.
Gender Variant: A term, often used to describe children and youth, that describes those who dress, behave, or express themselves in a way that does not confirm with dominant gender norms. Some people do not use this term because they feel it suggests these identities are abnormal. (See gender nonconforming.)
Genetic female (GF), genetic woman (GW), or genetic girl (GG): A non-transgender female or aka a cisgender female.
Genetic male (GM): A non-transgender male or aka a cisgender male.
Gynesexual/Gynephilic: attracted to females, women, and/or femininity
Hermaphrodite: an outdated medical term used to describe someone who is intersex; not used today as it is considered to be medically stigmatizing, and also misleading as it means a person who is 100% male and female, a biological impossibility for humans
Heteronormativity: The assumption, in individuals or in institutions, that everyone is heterosexual, and that heterosexuality is superior to homosexuality and bisexuality.
Heterosexism: behavior that grants preferential treatment to heterosexual people, reinforces the idea that heterosexuality is somehow better or more “right” than queerness, or ignores/doesn’t address queerness as existing.
Heterosexual: a medical definition for a person who is attracted to someone with the other gender (or, literally, biological sex) than they have; often referred to as “straight”.
Heterosexual Privilege: Those benefits derived automatically by being heterosexual that are denied to homosexuals and bisexuals. Also, the benefits homosexuals and bisexuals receive as a result of claiming heterosexual identity or denying homosexual or bisexual identity.
HIV Phobia: The irrational fear or hatred of persons living with HIV/AIDS.
Homophobia: fear, anger, intolerance, resentment, or discomfort with queer people, often focused inwardly as one begins to question their own sexuality.
Homosexual: An outdated clinical term often considered derogatory and offensive, as opposed to the preferred terms, “gay” and “lesbian.”
Intersex: a person with a set of sexual anatomy that doesn’t fit within the labels of female or male (e.g., 47,XXY phenotype, uterus, and penis)
In the closet: Describes a person who keeps their sexual orientation or gender identity a secret from some or all people.
Lesbian: A woman whose emotional, romantic, and/or physical attraction is to other women. People who are lesbians need not have had any sexual experience; it is the attraction that helps determine orientation.
LGBT/LGBTA/LGBTQ: An acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender which refers to these individuals collectively. It is sometimes stated as “GLBT” (gay, lesbian, bi, and transgender). Occasionally, the acronym is stated as “LGBTA” to include allies, “LGBTQ,” with “Q” representing queer or questioning.
LGBPTTQQIIAA+: any combination of letters attempting to represent all the identities in the queer community, this near-exhaustive one (but not exhaustive) represents Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Pansexual, Transgender, Transsexual, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Intergender, Asexual, Agender
Lifestyle: A negative term often incorrectly used to describe the lives of people who are LGBTQ. The term is disliked because it implies that being LGBTQ is a choice. Try using LGBTQ lives instead.
Metrosexual: First used in 1994 by British journalist Mark Simpson, who coined the term to refer to an urban, heterosexual male with a strong aesthetic sense who spends a great deal of time and money on his appearance and lifestyle. This term can be perceived as derogatory because it reinforces stereotypes that all gay men are fashion-conscious and materialistic.
MTF / M2F: Abbreviation for male-to-female transgender or transsexual person.
Non-binary: Non-binary (sometimes referred to as genderqueer) is an umbrella term for gender identites that are not exclusively masculine or feminine. Someone who considers themselve outside the gender binary and cisnormativity.
Out: Describes people who openly self-identify as LGBTQ in their public and/or professional lives.
Outing [someone]: when someone reveals another person’s sexuality or gender identity to an individual or group, often without the person’s consent or approval; not to be confused with “coming out”
Packing: Wearing a phallic device on the groin and under clothing for any purposes including: (for someone without a biological penis) the validation or confirmation of one’s masculine gender identity; seduction; and/or sexual readiness (for one who likes to penetrate another during sexual intercourse).
Pangender: A person whose gender identity is comprised of all or many gender expressions.
Pansexual: a person who experiences sexual, romantic, physical, and/or spiritual attraction for members of all gender identities/expressions.
Passing: Describes a person's ability to be accepted as their preferred gender/sex or race/ethnic identity or to be seen as heterosexual.
Polyamory: Refers to having honest, usually non-possessive, relationships with multiple partners and can include: open relationships, polyfidelity (which involves multiple romantic relationships with sexual contact restricted to those), and sub relationships (which denote distinguishing between a ‘primary" relationship or relationships and various "secondary" relationships).
Prejudice: A conscious or unconscious negative belief about a whole group of people and its individual members.
Queer: A term currently used by some people—particularly youth— to describe themselves and/or their community. Some value the term for its defiance, some like it because it can be inclusive of the entire community, and others find it to be an appropriate term to describe their more fluid identities. Traditionally a negative or pejorative term for people who are gay, “queer” is disliked by some within the LGBT community, who find it offensive. Due to its varying meanings, this word should only be used when self-identifying or quoting someone who self-identifies as queer (i.e. “My cousin self-identifies as queer.”)
Questioning: A term used to describe those who are in a process of discovery and exploration about their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or a combination thereof.
Same Gender Loving (SGL): a phrase coined by the African American/Black queer communities used as an alternative for “gay” and “lesbian” by people who may see those as terms of the White queer community.
Sex: Refers to biological, genetic, or physical characteristics that define males and females. These can include genitalia, hormone levels, genes, or secondary sex characteristics. Sex is often compared or interchanged with gender, which is thought of as more social and less biological, though there is some considerable overlap.
Sexual Orientation: Emotional, romantic, or sexual feelings toward other people. People who are straight experience these feelings primarily for people of the opposite sex. People who are gay or lesbian experience these feelings primarily for people of the same sex. People who are bisexual experience these feelings for people of both sexes. And people who are asexual experience no sexual attraction at all. Other terms describing sexual orientation include (but are not limited to) pansexual and polysexual. Sexual orientation is part of the human condition, while sexual behavior involves the choices one makes in acting on one’s sexual orientation. One’s sexual activity does not define who one is with regard to one’s sexual orientation; it is the attraction that determines their orientation.
Sexual Preference: (1) often incorrectly interchanged with the term “sexual orientation,” creating an illusion that one has a choice (or “preference”) in who they are attracted to; (2) the types of sexual intercourse, stimulation, and gratification one likes to receive and participate in.
Sexual Reassignment Surgery (SRS): A term used by some medical professionals to refer to a group of surgical options that alter a person’s “sex”. In most states, one or multiple surgeries are required to achieve legal recognition of gender variance. (a.k.a gender affirming or gender confirming surgery.)
Skoliosexual: attracted to genderqueer and transsexual people and expressions (people who aren’t identified as cisgender).
Straight: a man or woman who is attracted to people of the other binary gender than themselves; often referred to as “heterosexual”
Stealth: A term used to describe transgender individuals who do not disclose their trans status in their public lives.
Third Gender: (1) a person who does not identify with the traditional genders of “man” or “woman,” but identifies with another gender; (2) the gender category available in societies that recognize three or more genders
TGNC: Acronym which stands for transgender and gender nonconforming. Often used when talking about groups of people with diverse gender identities.
Top Surgery: This term usually refers to surgery for the construction of a male-type chest, but may also refer to breast augmentation.
Transactivism: The political and social movement to create equality for gender variant persons.
Transgender: A term that may be used to describe people whose gender expression does not conform to the cultural norms and/or whose gender identity is different from their sex assigned at birth. Transgender is also considered by some to be an “umbrella term” that encompasses a number of identities which transcend the conventional expectations of gender identity and expression, including FTM, MTF, genderqueer, and gender expansive. People who identify as transgender may or may not decide to alter their bodies hormonally and/or surgically to match their gender identity (see transsexual.)
Transition: The process one goes through to discover and/or affirm their gender identity. This can, but does not always, include taking hormones, having surgeries, or going through therapy.
Trans man: a person who was assigned a female sex at birth, but identifies as a man
Transsexual: A term used to describe those who have undergone some form of gender-related surgery. Some people who identify as transsexual do not identify as transgender and vice versa.
Trans woman: a person who was assigned a male sex at birth, but identifies as a woman
Two-Spirit: a term traditionally used by Native American people to recognize individuals who possess qualities or fulfill roles of both genders
Tucking: The technique of hiding male genitals so that they do not cause an embarrassing bulge under female clothing.
Ze / Hir: Alternate pronouns that are gender neutral and preferred by some gender variant persons. Pronounced /zee/ and /here,/ they replace “he”/”she” and “his”/”hers” respectively.
Sources: PFLAG Glossary, Comprehensive* List of LGBT+ Vocabulary Definitions, UCLA LGBTQ Terminology, Laura's Playground Transgender Resources