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).

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.

The fear and hatred of, or discomfort with, people who love and are sexually attracted to more than one gender.

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.

A term for those whose gender identity matches what they were assigned as their SEX at birth.

A term that describes the Male / Female system of gender widely adopted by society wherein someone is “either” Male OR Female.

A term that more accurately explains how everyone in the world is shades of both ‘Male’ and ‘Female’ in their identity, behaviors, actions, personality traits, etc.

It specifically is used to point out how the Gender Binary system is inadequate as a method of defining one’s gender since everyone is somewhere on the continuum and that people can move back and forth between the socially defined Male and Female or live completely in the middle or undefined within the Gender Binary system.

Clinically significant distress caused when a person's assigned birth gender is not the same as the one with which they identify.

A person with a wider, more flexible range of gender identity and/or expression than typically associated with the binary gender system. Often used as an umbrella term when referring to young people still exploring the possibilities of their gender expression and/or gender identity.

External appearance of one's gender identity, usually expressed through behavior, clothing, body characteristics or voice, and which may or may not conform to socially defined behaviors and characteristics typically associated with being either masculine or feminine.

A term that some transgender people have used to express that their Gender Identity is not defined in the binary as either Male or Female, but that it can move between or is some of both and unique unto themselves.

A term to express what you feel is your gender (not your SEX).

Genderqueer people typically reject notions of static categories of gender and embrace a fluidity of gender identity and often, though not always, sexual orientation. People who identify as "genderqueer" may see themselves as being both male and female, neither male nor female or as falling completely outside these categories.

The fear and hatred of or discomfort with people who are attracted to members of the same sex.

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.

A term that is used to define what your biological, chromosomal, or genitalia were (assigned at birth) and is expressed in the Gender Binary terms of Male or Female.

An umbrella term that is getting more use over transsexual or transvestite.

Transgender is NOT about sexual orientation or who you find yourself attracted to sexually – it is about the gender you feel you most closely identify with (or feel you ARE) in your mind, heart, and soul. This term means that the gender you identify with internally does not match the SEX you were assigned at birth (usually based on your genitalia) by a doctor.

A term used to describe the changes that some transgender people undergo to make their outside appearance match their gender identity better than their current (or biological) body. Not all transgender people transition, and it is important to understand that how far or how little someone changes their outward appearance is for that person to decide themselves.