This is a long page meant for learning & referencing should you need it. Engage with the call out blocks to see our recommendations, but use the language on this page with discretion. Until you reach a “Jump To Top” link—content continues! Directly below on the left, you will see goals, the research used, and a content warning. On the right, you can navigate using the table of contents.
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<aside> 🥅 Goals
<aside> 📊 The definitions in this section are taken from sources linked below each section. Present discourse about language might be found in Make Room for Nuance! below. Inquiries about further discourse may be submitted through an anonymous feedback form found on FAQ
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Note: Most of these terms originate from a US-Centric & Western Standard. From an international perspective, we recognize the possibility of being introduced to overwhelmingly new information. Recognizing the importance of intersectionality, we have also culminated language of non-US centric terms & experiences.
<aside> 🚨 Content Warning: Experiences of harm and violence are elaborated on and defined on this page.
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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).
What does it mean to be a good ally?
Source: Human Rights Campaign
Gender can be broadly defined as a multidimensional construct that encompasses gender identity and expression, as well as social and cultural expectations about status, characteristics, and behavior as they are associated with certain sex traits.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Gender Identity | One’s innermost concept of self as man, woman, a blend of both or neither – how individuals perceive themselves and what they call themselves. One's gender identity can be the same or different from their sex assigned at birth. |
| Gender Expression | 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. |
| Gender Binary | A system in which gender is constructed into two distinct categories of man or woman. Within the binary, gender identity is expected to align with the sex assigned at birth and gender expressions and roles fit traditional expectations. |
| Gender Dysphoria | Clinically significant distress caused when a person's assigned birth gender is not the same as the one with which they identify. |
| Gender Expansive | A person with a wider, more flexible range of gender identities and/or expressions 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. |
| Gender Neutral | Not gendered. Can refer to language (including pronouns and salutations/titles--see https://empty-cadmium-890.notion.site/LGBTQ-Language-101-7c8f11665b9a437f8cb87ea7cbe0a91a), spaces (like bathrooms), or other aspects of society (like colors or occupations). Gender neutral is not a term to describe people. A person who experiences no gender may be agender. |
Source: National Institute of Health, Human Rights Campaign, PFLAG
Sex is a multidimensional biological construct based on anatomy, physiology, genetics, and hormones. (These components are sometimes referred to together as “sex traits.”)
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Sex Assigned At Birth (SAB) | The sex (male, female or intersex) that a doctor or midwife uses to describe a child at birth based on their external anatomy. |
| Intersex | A general term used to refer to individuals born with, or who develop naturally in puberty, biological sex characteristics that are not typically male or female |
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. | | Female | A person with XX chromosomes usually has female sex and reproductive organs, and is therefore usually assigned biologically female. | | Male | A person with XY chromosomes usually has male sex and reproductive organs, and is therefore usually assigned biologically male. |