Glossary
We have included some key terms that relate to the LGBTQ+ community.
Disclaimer: Vocabulary is constantly expanding and this is an incomplete list of terms and it is possible that the definitions may expand or change.
A person that does not have interest in or desire for romantic relationships; someone who does not experience romantic attraction to anyone.
- Gray-romantic (grey) - someone who falls in an area between aromantic and romantic.
Asexuality is considered a spectrum, meaning that there are many different ways in which folks experience asexuality.
Asexual - A person who does not experience sexual attraction in the ways deemed culturally normative; they may or may not experience emotional, physical, or romantic attraction.
Asexuality is an umbrella term used for the ace community including folks that may identify as:
- Ace Flux/Aro Flux - someone whose experience of sexual (ace) and/or romantic (aro) attraction fluctuates.
- Akiosexual/Akoiromantic - to have sexual/romantic attraction for someone but not wanting to act on/have those sexual feelings reciprocated.
- Cupiosexual/Cupioromantic - someone who does not experiences sexual/romantic attraction but has a desire to be in a sexual/romantic relationship.
- Demisexual/Demiromantic - a person who does not have sexual attraction towards any person unless one becomes deeply emointionally or romantically connected with a specific person; a person who does not experience primary attraction, based on first impression (for example: appearance), but does experience secondary attraction (after relationship forms and there is an emotional connection).
- Gray-asexual (grey) - experiencing sexual attraction but not strongly enough to act on them; between asexual and sexual.
- Reciprosexual/Recipromantic - someone who does not experience sexual/romantic attraction until they know that person is attracted to them.
- And/or something else entirely
A term used to acknowledge how a person was identified at birth. This is sometimes used in place of the term “Biological Sex” because assigned sex is based only on external genitals and does not take into account other biological factors.
A person who is attracted to people with genders similar to their own and to people with genders different from their own.
Someone who identifies with the gender identity/expression expectations assigned to them based on their sex at birth.
A term used by individuals who do not experience primary sexual attraction but may experience secondary sexual attraction after a close emotional connection has already formed.
When one’s sexual orientation or gender identity is not fixed on one point of a continuum.
A common term for men who are attracted to other men.
An umbrella term used to refer to any surgeries that change one’s body to reflect one’s gender identity.
The socially supported understanding of gender as divided into two distinct categories or experiences - man and woman.
Men who are primarily emotionally, physically and/or sexually attracted to women; and women who are primarily emotionally, physically, and/or sexually attracted to men
A term that refers to someone whose anatomy or genetics do not correspond to the typical expectations for either male or female. Intersex is also an umbrella term used to describe a variety of natural body variations.
A common term for women who are attracted to other women.
A term used to describe one’s experiences of gender outside of the binary of man/woman. An umbrella term that might encompass identities such as agender, genderqueer, and many more.
Attraction toward people of all genders, including those who identify as transgender, transsexual, androgynous, genderqueer, gender, and all other gender identifications, as well as those who do not feel they have a gender.
An umbrella term which embraces a matrix of sexual preferences, orientations, and habits of the not-exclusively-heterosexual-and-monogamous majority; also a sexual orientation or gender identity label denoting a non-heterosexual and/or non-cisgender orientation.
The process of exploring one’s own sexual orientation or gender identity, investigating influences that may come from their family, religious upbringing, and internal motivations.
A theory of attraction that acknowledges that romantic and sexual attraction do not always agree.
An umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or gender expression does not conform to that typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth.