• This is separate from asexuality. However, when both occur together, the term “aro-ace” can be used.
• Aromanticism is at the end of a spectrum of romantic orientation. The most well established identities on this spectrum are demiromantic and greyromantic:
• Demiromantic: someone who only experiences romantic attraction after developing a strong emotional connection with someone.
• Greyromantic: someone who sometimes, occasionally, or conditionally experiences romantic attraction. This is an intentionally imprecise term meant to be inclusive of all orientations between aromantic and alloromantic.
• There are many other identities that fall on the aromantic spectrum or are related to aromanticism.

• Asexual people often experience romantic attraction, and have a romantic orientation. Those who do not would be considered aromantic. People who are both asexual and aromantic sometimes refer to themselves as “aro-ace.”
• Asexuality is not a medical condition, choice, or trend, in the same way that being gay is none of those things: both are sexual orientations that are remarkably stable throughout people’s lives.
• Many asexual people feel the term should only be used to describe those whose low or nonexistent sexual drive has been consistent through substantial parts of their lives, and that it does not include people experiencing relatively temporary low sexual drive (because of a medical condition, mental illness, medication side effects, hormones, or stress) where sex drive and attraction would be likely to return as the situation improves.
• Asexuality as an identity is separate from the use of the term “asexual” as a descriptor, or from reproduction methods in non-human life.

• The most well established identities on the asexual spectrum are asexual, demisexual, and greysexual or grey-A:
• Demisexual: person who experiences sexual attraction only towards people they already have a close connection with.
• Greysexual: people who sometimes, occasionally, or conditionally experience sexual attraction. This is an intentionally imprecise term meant to be inclusive of all orientations between asexual and allosexual.
• There are many other identities that fall on the asexual spectrum.

• This term is sometimes incorrectly understood to require a binary understanding of gender (only attracted to “men” and “women”). While some bisexual people may only be attracted to cisgender men and women, many others reject this binary and are attracted to a broad range of genders.
• This term is related, but not synonymous, to pansexual. Pansexual people are attracted to others “regardless of gender,” whereas bisexual people are more likely to see gender as a part of how they experience attraction.

• Coming “out of the closet” is the accompanying colloquial term for sharing one’s LGBTQ+ identity with others.
• The “closet” is often associated with shame and deception, but it’s important to remember that coming out can be dangerous, and some people risk not only their relationships with loved ones, but even their safety, homes, and lives.

• People may be out to everyone in their lives, or they may be out to some people or groups but not others.
• Some people also use this term to describe accepting their own identities: “I had to come out to myself first.”
• Coming out can refer either to the individual act of sharing one’s identity with someone, or to the more general process that many LGBTQ+ people go through as they begin to live openly in alignment with their identities.
• Sharing someone’s LGBTQ+ identity without their consent is called “outing” them. Never share someone’s identity with others if you aren’t sure that they also know.

• This is a very controversial concept, due to its weaponization by anti-trans activists as “proof” that the trans experience isn’t real or that it is very harmful.
• There are people who choose to detransition, for a variety of reasons. However, the actual number of “detransitioners” is believed to be very low, somewhere between 0.3-3.8%.

• The phrase “men who have sex with men” is used to differentiate between identity and behavior, as not all men who engage in sex acts with other men identify as gay or bisexual. This phrase is often used in healthcare and social work.
• The term androphile is used in behavioral science to describe anyone who is attracted to men or masculinity.

• Different social contexts give rise to differing understandings of gender as a concept, as well as gender identities, gender roles, and gender presentations.
• When an individual speaks of “my gender,” they are usually speaking about a combination of their gender identity, sex as assigned at birth, gender presentation, and/or gender role. Basically, they are describing their gender as they understand it internally and as they live it out in the world.

• Gender dysphoria can be acute, and can be the source of serious mental health problems like depression, anxiety, and self-harming and suicidal behaviors, particularly in environments (such as living with unaccepting family) where the possibility of a transition seems distant.
• Gender dysphoria is also a formal medical diagnosis used by practitioners as a major part of documentation for eligibility for medical gender-affirming care.

Gender-affirming surgery is performed mainly on transgender men and women, but the medical community is increasingly open to supporting nonbinary people as well.

• This conception relies heavily on a binary understanding of gender (exclusively “male” and “female”), but a more progressive understanding of heterosexuality can include trans and nonbinary people as well. For example, a trans woman and a cisgender man are in a heterosexual relationship.
• Note: this is separate from the highly contested concept of “queer heterosexuality,” in which self-described heterosexual, cisgender people identify as queer due mainly to adopting gender expressions and roles that differ from their culture’s dominant models of masculinity and femininity

• Masculinizing hormone therapy consists of androgens and antiestrogens.
• Feminizing hormone therapy consists of estrogens with or without antiandrogens.
• Access to HRT has traditionally been tied to an individual’s perceived level of gender dysphoria. However, in recent times some doctors have moved to an “informed consent” model where focus is on the patient’s understanding of the impacts of this therapy, rather than on proving a certain level of dysphoria.

• There is no officially determined line separating intersex people from males and females, indicating a considerable amount of diversity in the human presentation of sex characteristics.
• Some intersex people require surgery or other medical interventions in order to live comfortable and healthy lives, but many do not. Some people don’t find out they are intersex until later in life.

• An advocacy issue for intersex people is forced surgery on intersex babies and young children who are healthy and comfortable but whose parents and/or doctors choose to surgically modify the child’s sex organs for cosmetic purposes and to align more closely with a typical “male” or “female” presentation. This surgery is sometimes referred to as “genital mutilation surgery.”
• Please note: this is separate from the human rights issue of female genital mutilation, which is a cultural practice of damaging healthy children and young women’s natural sex organs.

• The term sapphic or sapphism refers to the celebrated ancient Greek poet Sappho, from the isle of Lesbos, whose work contained many references to love and sex between women. While historically used to refer to lesbians, it has become an unofficial umbrella term for many genders who love women.
• The term gynephile is used in behavioral sciences to describe anyone who is attracted to women or femininity.

• Many men are born with socially defined male sex organs and characteristics, and often are socialized in their community towards cisgender manhood, but men may also come to manhood through a transgender or otherwise gender nonconforming experience.
• A man could be cisgender or transgender, and many people who feel connected with the masculine but don’t see themselves as “men” may use the term “masc,” either by itself or as a modifier (ex: genderqueer masc).
• In the dominant Western cultural paradigm, men and masculinity hold privilege over women (and all other genders), and benefit in numerous ways from a historical and current system of patriarchy. It’s important to note that this patriarchy also harms boys and men by forcing them into rigid social roles and restricting their range of expression.
• Self-identifying men who also identify with LGBTQ+ identities may benefit from male privilege at the same time as they experience anti-queer oppression. This is one way that male identity intersects with other identities, experiences, and community affiliations.

• The term “genderqueer” is often used as a synonym for nonbinary, but is considered by some to be differentiated as a more overtly “political” term, referring to the queering or disruption of gender.
• Some nonbinary people use the term “enby” as a shorthand, in-community term.
• While nonbinary is a gender identity in itself, there are many other genders that could be considered to be under this umbrella. Just a short list includes: agender, bigender, pangender, genderfluid, and demigender.

• For transgender and gender-nonconforming children, they delay the development of unwanted sex characteristics, reducing dysphoria and allowing time for the child to further explore their gender identity. Puberty blockers allow young trans people to have a smoother transition to their desired gender in adulthood.
• The most commonly used puberty blockers are gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists, which suppress the production of sex hormones, including testosterone and estrogen.
• These drugs were originally developed to treat “precocious” or early-onset puberty, and most studies of the drug’s safety is focused on this group. Studies on this group indicate that puberty blockers are safe and reversible, and studies focused on transgender children indicate that the drug also improves psychological wellbeing and reduces suicidality.
• As of 2024, puberty blockers are a focal point of anti-trans political and cultural organizing in the US, and its use is currently banned in 16 states, with several other potential bans in process. Bans are either directed at doctors who might prescribe puberty blockers, or at insurance companies who might help pay for them.

• For most of the 20th century, “queer” was used as a slur against all non-straight, non-cis people, and is still in the process of being reclaimed. Some in the LGBTQ+ community oppose this reclamation process.
• There’s a long tradition in academic gender and sexuality studies of “queering” as a form of analysis that challenges heteronormativity and cisnormativity in close reading of a text. (Ex: “queering Moby Dick” means to analyze Melville’s novel Moby Dick from a specifically gay or queer point of view.)

• Related to, but not the same as, sexual attraction.
• A romantic orientation refers to which people someone commonly finds themselves romantically attracted to. Often these are the same people they’re sexually attracted to, but not always.
• Some of the most well established orientations for people who experience romantic attraction are heteroromantic, homoromantic, panromantic, and biromantic.
• People who do not experience romantic attraction are called aromantics.

• Biological sex classification is often positioned as universal, but is itself a cultural product. This is not to say that there is no basis for such classifications, but that the societies who produce these classification systems inform how they work.
• For example, in mainstream Western culture, intersex people and their diverse sexual characteristics are not usually spoken of when discussing biological differences “between the sexes” (to the point where many are not fully aware that intersex people exist), but there are modern and historical societies around the world where intersex people would be considered a natural part of such conversations.
• A common phrase for referring to this while discussing gender is “sex assigned at birth.” Some people, particularly trans and nonbinary people, may use the acronyms AFAB (“assigned female at birth”) and AMAB (“assigned male at birth”) when describing their personal history.

• Generally, sexual orientation is about which groups of people (usually gender groups) a person is consistently attracted to over a long period of time. Sexual orientation is not a choice or preference, and has been shown in numerous scientific studies (PDF) to be highly resistant to change efforts (see: so-called “conversion therapy”).
• For most people, sexual orientation is stable and unchanging throughout their lives, although some people experience shifts over time (see: sexual fluidity).
• Not everyone experiences sexual attraction. This is the domain of the asexuality spectrum.

These genders are not synonymous with transgender or nonbinary identities as understood in modern Western culture.

• Traditionally this term refers to people who undertake a process of transition in order to live in alignment with their gender identity. This process usually involves changing one’s gender presentation and adjusting social roles, and may also include (but does not require) hormones and surgery.
• Not all people who identify as transgender choose to transition socially or medically. Transgender is a gender identity first, meaning it’s an internal experience of one’s gender.

• This primarily involves a social transition, often including a change in gender presentation: different clothing and hair style, personal pronouns, and name are all common.
• If a person opts for medical transition, it’s often an extension of their social transition process. However, many trans and gender-nonconforming people do not choose to medically transition.
• The controversial belief that a trans identity requires medical transition is referred to as transmedicalism or, more derisively, “truscum.”
• It’s also important to note that not all transgender people actually choose to transition at all. They may still be considering, may not feel safe, or may simply not feel it’s the right choice for them. To be transgender is to identify with a different gender than the one you were assigned with at birth, whether or not you ever change your behavior based on that identification.

• Many Indigenous societies’ gender systems of the past and present have included roles for third gender (and fourth, and fifth) people: gender identities outside of “man” and “woman” that are unique to and inextricable from a specific cultural context. Despite the destruction of settler colonialism, many such Indigenous people still exist: Nádleehi people in Dine (Navajo) culture; Lhamana people in Zuni culture; Sipiniq in some Inuit cultures, to name only a few.
• The term “Two Spirit” is modern and considered “pan-Indian.” It is not universally accepted within Indigenous communities of North America. Many nations and tribes already had terms unique to them, and some have felt that the blanket term “Two-Spirit” enacts erasure against these more community-specific and traditional terms.
  
  Note: This is an ongoing debate and non-Indigenous people should take great care before engaging.
• “Indigiqueer” is a broader term that is meant to capture sexual and romantic as well as gender identities that are uniquely Indigenous, and to move away from the binary implications of the phrase Two-Spirit.

• Many women are born with socially defined female sex organs and characteristics, and often are socialized in their community towards cisgender womanhood, but many women may also come to womanhood through a transgender or otherwise gender nonconforming experience.
• A woman could be cisgender or transgender, and many people who feel connected with the feminine but don’t necessarily see themselves fully as women may use the term “femme,” either by itself or as a modifier (ex: nonbinary femme).
• Important note: “femme” is also a lesbian identity with a long history that is somewhat separate from this usage.
• Different cultures of past and present have all had different, though often overlapping, concepts of womanhood. There is a dominant cultural context for womanhood in modern Western societies, but it is important to note that it is not the only one, or the most evolved.

• Many methods are in use today as well as historically, such as spiritual interventions, talk therapy, aversion therapy using shocks or drugs, hypnosis, castration, and brain surgery.
• A specific form of so-called conversion therapy is “gender exploration therapy,” a form of (usually mandated) talk therapy for transgender and gender-nonconforming youth that attempts to locate pathological roots in their gender dysphoria while simultaneously delaying and withholding social and medical transition. It plays a part in the recent surge in anti-trans cultural rhetoric and legal action targeting trans youth in the United States and around the world.
• The phrase “conversion therapy” is problematic because the word “therapy” implies a medical legitimacy that does not exist. A few alternate phrases have been advanced, but current best practice is to use quotations and the adjective so-called: so-called “conversion therapy”.
• Advocates of so-called “conversion therapy” also do not use that term, instead going with euphemistic phrases like “healing from sexual brokenness.”

• Deadnaming may be an occasional mistake made by someone who is adjusting to a friend or loved one’s recent transition. Repeated deadnaming is disrespectful.
• Deadnaming is also done deliberately and with some malice by people who intend to cause harm by outing a trans person or denying their transition.
• Administrative deadnaming is when official organizations like schools, licensing bodies, and governments are unwilling or unable to change a trans person’s name within their system. This results in official documents like driver’s licenses, passports, etc. having a person’s deadname on them, which can cause a wide range of problems for them.

• Erasure can be against a specific group (bisexual erasure), or against the whole LGBTQ+ community.
• Erasure is an opposite to “hypervisibility,” which is a way of discriminating against a person or group by making them as visible as possible and therefore open to increased prejudice. Often deployed in media and politics against the trans community, and against queer people of color.

• While the term is constructed as a phobia, or pathological fear, it has come to refer to a more general fear of homosexuality. This can range from a low-level sense of unease around the topic of homosexuality to specific and directed anger and violence against anyone suspected of not being heterosexual.
• Homophobia is seen as a driver of individual discriminatory behavior, but is also seen within communities or groups who may band together against suspected “homosexuals,” and at the societal level, in media and politics, where homophobic cultural norms are set.
• The phrase “homoantagonism” is being proposed as an alternative, more accurately descriptive phrase.
• More accurate terms for everyday use: intolerance, bias, or prejudice against gay and lesbian people.

• This phrasing is technically accurate, but considered out of date. It has mostly been used by straight and cisgender people and signals a sense of patronizing surprise that an LGBTQ+ person is publicly out, or a backhanded way to single out LGBTQ+ individuals.
• Instead: if it’s necessary to refer to an LGBTQ+ person’s status as being “out of the closet” (which it usually is not), say “Ricky Martin is an out gay celebrity” or just “Ricky Martin is a gay celebrity.”

• Outing can occur on scales ranging from a single person (“I was outed to my mother by my brother”) to the entire world (“I was outed in the headlines of a national newspaper”).
• While outing is sometimes malicious, it is also often the result of a misunderstanding. Regardless of intent, being outed when one is not ready to share a part of their identity can be a deeply painful experience.
• It is important never to share someone’s identity status with anyone else who might not already know, even if it seems to you like the person is “out.”

• TERFs do not believe that transgender people exist, or at most they believe that “real” trans people are extremely rare. They tend to be particularly occupied with the belief that trans women are “actually” men attempting to co-opt feminism for personal gain or to prey on “real” women and girls.
• Many people who fit the description of TERF consider this term to be derogatory, and prefer the phrase “gender-critical feminist.” However, these two terms mean the exact same thing, and are primarily organized around the exclusion and persecution of transgender people, and particularly trans women.

• While the term is constructed as a phobia, or pathological fear, it has come to refer to a more general fear of transgression against cisnormativity. This can range from a low-level sense of unease around the topic of trans people to specific and directed anger and violence against anyone suspected of not being cisgender.
• Transphobia can and does occur at community and societal levels as well as at the individual level. Communities can band together against trans individuals. Transphobic cultural norms are set at the societal level, in media and politics.
• The phrase “transantagonism” is being proposed as an alternative, more accurately descriptive phrase.