Agender: Adjective that describes someone who identifies as having no gender or who does not experience gender as a primary component of their identity.

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Asexual: Often called “ace” for short, asexual refers to a complete or partial lack of sexual attraction or lack of interest in sexual activity with others. Asexuality exists on a spectrum, and asexual people may experience no, little or conditional sexual attraction.

 

Bisexual: A term to describe a person emotionally, romantically or sexually attracted to more than one gender, though not necessarily simultaneously, in the same way or to the same degree. Sometimes used interchangeably with pansexual.

Cisgender: Adjective used to describe a person whose gender identity is congruent, in a traditional sense, with the sex assigned to them at birth.  In other words, one who does not identify as transgender. The word is derived from the Latin root “cis” meaning “on this side.”

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Gay: Of, relating to, or characterized by sexual or romantic attraction to people of one's same sex.

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Genderfluid: A term used to describe a person who does not identify with a single fixed gender or has a fluid or unfixed gender identity.

 

Heterosexual: Attracted to men if you are a woman, and women if you are a man. Often referred to as "straight."

Intersex: An umbrella term for a wide spectrum of natural variations in sex characteristics involving chromosomal, hormonal, endocrinological, and/or anatomical configurations that do not appear to fit the standard definitions of female and male.

Lesbian: A sexual orientation or romantic orientation most often defined as a woman who is attracted to other women, with many variations in definitions. Although lesbians are frequently defined as women who are attracted to women exclusively/solely they are also defined as women attracted to women primarily/mainly. Some prefer to use or additionally use "gay"as an identifier. Some folks who do not identify as women also identify with this term. 

Non-Binary: An adjective describing a person who does not identify exclusively as a man or a woman. Non-binary people may identify as being both a man and a woman, somewhere in between, or as falling completely outside these categories. While many also identify as transgender, not all non-binary people do. Non-binary can also be used as an umbrella term encompassing identities such as agender, bigender, genderqueer or gender-fluid.

Queer: An umbrella term for those who think of their gender identity or sexual orientation as being outside of societal norms. Once considered a derogatory term, “queer” has been reclaimed by many within the LGBTQIA+ community as a term of empowerment, but still may be considered offensive by some, especially if used by a person who is not in the community.

Questioning: A term used to describe people who are in the process of exploring their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Transgender: An umbrella term for people whose gender identity does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. Transgender people may identify as straight, gay, bisexual or some other sexual orientation.

Two-Spirit: A modern, pan-Native American term used by some Indigenous communities in the United States to describe queer and/or gender non-conforming people, replacing the inaccurate and often degrading phraseology imposed on gender-variant Indigenous peoples by white colonizers. Note that the term is not synonymous with western concepts like “transgender” or “queer”—it can mean many things depending on an individual’s culture or personal identity.

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Sources: Johns Hopkins, Yale, SFSU, GLAAD, Trans Lifeline, HRC