Glossary
Language is fluid, always changing, and culturally specific. As such, the meaning and use of words change depending on the context and time. This is not an exhaustive list, but it reflects some current definitions for a few of the more commonly used words associated with sexual orientation and gender identity.
It is important to remember that sexual orientation and gender identity are distinct concepts. Because the LGBQTTI terms are often included together, the difference between these two concepts can become obscured.
While we all possess a sexual orientation and gender identity, one's sexual orientation says or determines nothing about one's gender identity and vice versa. Sexual orientation deals with attraction to others while gender identity deals with how someone sees themselves along a continuum of gender possibilities, independent of attraction.
- Bisexual (see also Pansexual)
- A person who is romantically/sexually attracted to or involved with people of both/all genders, or is open to such attraction.
- Gay
- A man who is romantically/sexually attracted to or involved with other men. This term has also has been used as an umbrella term for everyone who has same-sex romantic/sexual attractions or relations, particularly in mainstream media. But this usage is falling-out of favour because it is not as inclusive as some of the other umbrella terms, such as queer or LGBQTTI.
- Gender identity
- A person's concept of their gender that may be the same as or different from the gender traditionally associated with their birth sex (male, female, or intersex). Thus adopting the female gender means becoming socially and culturally female, even if one is biologically male or intersex.
A person may also define their gender identity as being more fluid than either male or female or as multi-gendered. In other words, their gender identity may encompass parts of masculinity, femininity, and other non-traditional gender expressions. Some people do not identify with any gender labels at all. - Genderqueer (or Gender queer)
- A gender-variant person whose gender identity is neither male or female, is between or beyond genders, is some combination of genders, or who refuses gender altogether. Often includes a political agenda to challenge gender stereotypes and the gender binary system.
- Gender variant
- A person whose gender presentation, either by nature or by choice, does not conform to culturally specific, gender-based expectations of a male/female binary gendering system that is linked to birth sex.
This may include people who don't fit, or choose to fit, into socially defined categories of "male" or "female," some who identify as trans but do not view themselves as either female or male, those who are androgynous, genderqueer, and who display gender traits that are not normally associated with their birth sex (e.g., "feminine" behaviour in a man or "masculine" behaviour in a woman). - Heterosexual
- A person who is romantically/sexually attracted to or involved with members of the "opposite" gender/sex.
- Intersex
- A person who is born with both male and female sex characteristics.
- Lesbian
- A woman who is romantically/sexually attracted to or involved with other women.
- LGBQTTI
- An acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, trans (transgender, transsexual, trans-identified, genderqueer), two-spirit, and intersex.
- Pansexual (sometimes referred to as Omnisexual)
- A person who is romantically/sexually attracted to, or open to attraction to people of many different gender identities. This term reflects a non-binary understanding of gender and its interplay with sexuality, and it is increasingly being used to reference the understanding that there are many genders, not just two genders or sexes, as implied by the prefix "bi. Lo9."
- Queer
- A once derogatory term reclaimed by some LGBQTTI persons, often used as an umbrella term to encompass all of LGBQTTI, or to refer to political activism or academic inquiry on LGBQTTI issues, or as a self-identifying label for persons who experience their sexuality as more fluid than the individual LGBQTTI labels imply.
- Sexual orientation
- One's sexual, affectional, and romantic interests to members of the same gender (usually called gay, lesbian, or queer) or to another gender (usually called bisexual or queer). Some people experience their sexual orientation as an unchanging, lifelong part of their nature, and others experience it in a more fluid way that changes over time or across situations. Everyone has a sexual orientation, whether or not they are sexually active.
- Transgender, Trans, or Trans-identified
- A person who was assigned a gender, usually at birth and based on their biological sex characteristics, but who feels that this is a false or incomplete description of their gender identity. A person who identifies with a gender identity other than the one that was ascribed to their biological sex at birth. A person who views their gender as more fluid than the strictly male and female gender categories allow. A person who expresses their gender in ways that challenge societal expectations of the range of possibilities for women and men.
Also used as an umbrella term for transsexual, transgender, cross-dressing, intersex, bi-gendered, genderqueer, multi-gendered, and androgynous people, as well as those who don't identify with any gender labels. Trans persons may be gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, two-spirit, or heterosexual. Some people who identify as trans see themselves as gender-variant, while others define themselves as female or male, regardless of birth sex. - Two-spirit (or Two-spirited)
- A spiritual identity of some First Nations persons who embody masculine and feminine spirits or genders within the same body. Traditionally, two-spirit peoples were considered to be visionaries and healers who fulfilled roles assigned to both sexes and/or other roles reserved only for those who attained the highly respected status of two-spirit.
This term, drawn from the traditional belief that sexuality and gender are inseparable from other aspects of life, can also refer to a person of aboriginal ancestry who is lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer, or who identifies as being either of mixed gender or transgender.
Source: Used with permission from the Positive Space Campaign.
