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Definitions to Help
Understand Gender and
Sexual Orientation
Asexual/Ace: A term that describes a person
who lacks sexual attraction or desire for other
people.
Birth Assignment (Sex Assigned at Birth):
This is generally determined by external genitalia at
birth––female, male or intersex.
Bisexual/Bi+: A term that describes a person
who is emotionally, romantically or sexually
attracted to people of more than one gender,
sex, or gender identity.
Cisgender: A term that describes a person whose
gender identity aligns with the sex assigned to
them at birth.
Cis-Heteronormative: This term refers to the
assumption that heterosexuality and being
cisgender are the norm, which plays out in
interpersonal interactions and society, and furthers
the marginalization of queer and gender diverse
people.
Dyadic: Not Intersex.
Gay: A term that describes a person who is
emotionally, romantically or sexually attracted to
some members of the same gender.
Gender Binary: The idea that there are two
distinct and opposite genders––female and male.
This model is limiting and doesn’t account for the
full spectrum of gender identities and gender
expressions.
Gender Dysphoria: Clinically significant distress
caused when a person's assigned birth gender is
not the same as the one in which they identify.
According to the American Psychiatric
Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders (DSM), the term - which replaces
Gender Identity Disorder - "is intended to better
characterize the experiences of affected children,
adolescents, and adults”.
Gender Expression: External appearance of
one's gender identity, usually expressed through
behavior, clothing, haircut or voice, which may or
may not conform to socially defined behaviors and
characteristics typically associated with being
either feminine or masculine.
Gender Identity: An internal, deeply felt sense of
being female, male, a blend of both or neither.
Refers to how individuals perceive themselves and
what they call themselves. Can be the same as or
different from their sex assigned at birth.
Gender Non-Conforming: A broad term referring
to people who do not behave in a way that
conforms to the traditional expectations of their
gender, or whose gender expression does not fit
neatly into a category.
Genderqueer: People who embrace a fluidity of
gender identity and often, though not always,
sexual orientation. Other terms you may hear under
this umbrella are gender expansive, gender fluid, or
gender creative.
© 2020 Human Rights Campaign Foundation Welcoming Schools. All rights reserved.
QTPOC: Queer, Trans, People of Color.
Queer: A term people often use to express fluid
identities and orientations. Often used
interchangeably with "LGBTQ”.
Same-Gender Loving: A term coined and used
by communities of color instead of lesbian, gay or
bisexual to express attraction to and love of people
of the same gender.
Sexual Orientation: An inherent or immutable
enduring emotional, romantic or sexual attraction to
other people.
SOGIE: Sexual Orientation Gender Identity and
Expression.
Transgender/Trans: 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.
Two Spirit: An umbrella term and identity within
many first nations communities both historically and
presently that describes people who live within a
spectrum of genders, sexual identities, gender
expressions and gender roles.
Heteronormative: The assumption of
heterosexuality as the given or default sexual
orientation instead of one of many possibilities, and
that the preferred or default relationship is between
two people of “opposite” genders.
Intersex: An umbrella term used to describe a
wide range of natural bodily variations. In some
cases, these traits are visible at birth, and in others,
they are not apparent until puberty.
Lesbian: A woman who is emotionally,
romantically, and/or sexually attracted to women.
This includes cis, trans and other people who are
women.
LGBTQ: An acronym for “lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender and queer”.
Non-Binary: An adjective describing a person
who does not identify exclusively as a woman or
a man. They may identify as both, somewhere in
between, or outside the categories of a woman
and a man.
Pansexual/Pan: Describes someone who has
the potential for emotional, romantic or sexual
attraction to people of any gender though not
necessarily simultaneously, in the same way, or
to the same degree.
Note: For students see the Welcoming Schools
handout: Defining LGBTQ Terms for Elementary
School Students.
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