Definitions and Glossaries
LGBTQIA+ is an acronym that collectively refers to individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and/or asexual. The inclusion of additional letters is meant to make the acronym more inclusive to all those with diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. The ‘Q’ can also stand for questioning, referring to those who are still exploring their own sexuality and/or gender. The ‘+’ represents those who are part of the community, but for whom LGBTQIA does not accurately capture or reflect their identity.
Sex vs. Gender
From the U.S. Department of Labor Policies on Gender Identity: Sex (i.e. male, female, or intersex) is assigned at birth based on a combination of a baby's biological characteristics, including chromosomes, hormones, and reproductive organs, and is originally documents on a person's birth certificate. The World Health Organization defines gender as the "socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate" based on sex.
Identity Definitions
A list of identities included under the acronym based off of the Human Rights Commission's Glossary of Terms:
- Ally: A term used to describe someone who is actively supportive of LGBTQ+ people. It encompasses straight and cisgender allies, as well as those within the LGBTQ+ community who support each other (e.g., a lesbian who is an ally to the bisexual community).
- 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 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.
- Gay: A person whose romantic, emotional, or sexual attraction is towards their own gender - most commonly used for men, but also by women and non-binary people.
- Intersex: Intersex people are born with a variety of differences in their sex traits and reproductive anatomy. There is a wide variety of difference among intersex variations, including differences in genitalia, chromosomes, gonads, internal sex organs, hormone production, hormone response, and/or secondary sex traits.
- Lesbian: A woman who is emotionally, romantically or sexually attracted to other women. Women and non-binary people may use this term to describe themselves.
- 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: A term people often use to express a spectrum of identities and orientations that are counter to the mainstream. Queer is often used as a catch-all to include many people, including those who do not identify as exclusively straight and/or folks who have non-binary or gender-expansive identities. This term was previously used as a slur, but has been reclaimed by many parts of the LGBTQ+ movement.
- 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 and/or expression is different from cultural expectations based on the sex they were assigned at birth. Being transgender does not imply any specific sexual orientation. Therefore, transgender people may identify as straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, etc.
Additional Glossaries:
