Glossary Flashcards
What is affirmed gender?
The gender to which someone who is transgender has transitioned. This term is often used to replace terms like ‘new gender’ or ‘chosen gender.’
What does agender mean?
A person who does not conform to any gender.
What is an ally?
A term used to describe someone who does not identify as LGBTQ but who is supportive of LGBTQ equality in its many forms.
What does androgynous refer to?
A non-binary gender identity, having both male and female characteristics.
What does asexual mean?
A person who does not experience sexual attraction.
What is assigned gender?
The gender that is given to an infant at birth based on the infant’s external genitals.
What is assigned sex?
The sex (male, female, intersex) that is assigned to an infant at birth.
What does bisexual mean?
An individual who is emotionally, romantically, and/or physically attracted to men and women.
What is cisgender?
A term used to describe an individual whose gender identity aligns with the one typically associated with the sex assigned to them at birth.
What does coming out refer to?
The process of self-acceptance for people who are LGBTQ, which continues throughout one’s life.
What is a cross-dresser?
Someone who wears the clothes typically worn by another gender, sometimes only in their home or as part of sexual play.
What does Female-to-Male (FtM) mean?
A term that describes someone who was assigned a female sex and gender at birth and currently has a male gender identity. The individual may or may not have had surgery or taken hormones to physically alter their appearance.
Affirmed male is sometimes the preferred terminology.
What is the definition of gay?
The adjective used to describe people whose emotional, romantic, and/or physical attraction is to people of the same sex (e.g., gay man, gay people). In contemporary contexts, ‘lesbian’ is often a preferred term for women.
People who are gay need not have had any sexual experience; it is attraction that helps determine orientation.
What is gender?
A set of social, psychological, or emotional traits, often influenced by societal expectations that classify an individual as either feminine or masculine.
What is gender-affirming surgery?
Surgical procedures that help people adjust their bodies in a way that more closely matches their desired gender identity. It is only one small part of a transition. Not every transgender person will desire or have resources for surgery.
This should be used in place of the older and often offensive term ‘sex change.’
What is the gender binary?
The concept that there are only two genders, male and female, and that everyone must be one or the other.
What does gender-diverse or gender variance mean?
gender variance means that a person’s gender identity or expression does not fit traditional male or female roles. It includes people who feel different from the gender assigned at birth, such as non-binary, genderfluid, or transgender individuals.
What is Gender Dysphoria (GD)?
A psychological diagnosis recognized by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and American Medical Association (AMA). This dysphoria is marked by severe distress and discomfort caused by the conflict between one’s gender identity and one’s designated sex at birth.
Not all transgender people experience gender dysphoria or are diagnosed with GD.
What is gender expression?
The manner in which a person chooses to communicate their gender identity to others through external means such as clothing and/or mannerisms. This communication may be conscious or subconscious and may or may not reflect their gender identity or sexual orientation.
What does gender fluid mean?
Someone who embodies characteristics of multiple genders, or shifts in gender identity.
What is gender identity?
One’s deeply held personal, internal sense of being male, female, some of both, or neither. One’s gender identity does not always correspond to biological sex.
Awareness of gender identity is often experienced in infancy, but may be discovered at later developmental stages.
What is a gender marker?
A legal indicator of one’s gender. This can include one’s gender on a passport, birth certificate, license, or insurance card.
What does gender neutral mean?
Not gendered. Can refer to language (including pronouns), spaces (like bathrooms), or identities (being genderqueer, for example).
What is gender nonconforming?
A person who views their gender identity as one of many possible genders beyond strictly female or male. This is an umbrella term that can encompass other terms such as ‘gender creative,’ ‘gender expansive,’ ‘gender variant,’ ‘genderqueer,’ ‘gender fluid,’ ‘gender neutral,’ ‘bigender,’ ‘androgynous,’ or ‘gender diverse.’ Such people feel that they exist psychologically between genders, as on a spectrum, or beyond the notion of the male and female binary paradigm.
What are gender norms?
Societal expectations about how people of different designated genders are supposed to act, live, and look.
What is gender policing?
Enforcing gender norms and attempting to impose gender-based behaviors on another person.
What does genderqueer mean?
A term that is sometimes used to describe someone who defines their gender outside the constructs of male and female. This can include having no gender (agender), being androgynous, or having elements of multiple genders.
What is a Gender Transition Liaison (GTL)?
An individual who can serve through a company department such as Diversity and Inclusion, human resources or through an Employee Resource Group (ERG), and aids transitioning individuals in their journey through the process of coming out at work and their workplace transition.
What does gender variant refer to?
Gender variant refers to people whose gender expression or identity does not match traditional societal expectations for their assigned sex at birth.
What is the definition of homosexual?
An outdated clinical term often considered derogatory and offensive, as opposed to the preferred terms, ‘gay’ and ‘lesbian.’
What does intersex mean?
Describing a person whose biological sex is ambiguous. There are many genetic, hormonal or anatomical variations which make a person’s sex ambiguous (i.e., Klinefelter Syndrome, Adrenal Hyperplasia).
What is a lesbian?
A woman whose emotional, romantic, and/or physical attraction is to other women. People who are lesbians need not have had any sexual experience; it is attraction that helps determine orientation.
What does Male-to-Female (MtF) mean?
A term that describes someone who was assigned a male sex and gender at birth and currently has a female gender identity. The individual may or may not have had surgery or taken hormones to physically alter their appearance.
What is medical transition?
The process of taking hormones or undergoing surgical procedures in order to change one’s body in a way that affirms one’s gender identity.
What does pansexual mean?
A person whose emotional, romantic, and/or physical attraction is to people of all gender identities and biological sexes. People who are pansexual need not have had any sexual experience; attraction determines orientation.
What are preferred gender pronouns (PGP)?
Refers to the set of pronouns that a person prefers (e.g., him, he, she, her, ze, hir, they). It is polite to ask for a person’s preferred gender pronoun when meeting them for the first time.
What does the term ‘queer’ mean?
A term currently used by some people, particularly youth, to describe themselves and/or their community. Some value the term for its defiance, some like it for its inclusivity, and others find it appropriate for fluid identities. Traditionally negative, it is disliked by some within the LGBT community.
Use only when self-identifying or quoting someone who self-identifies as queer (i.e., ‘My cousin self-identifies as queer.’).
What does ‘questioning’ refer to?
A term used to describe those who are in a process of discovery and exploration about their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or a combination thereof.
What is meant by ‘sex’?
Refers to biological, genetic, or physical characteristics that define males and females, including genitalia, hormone levels, genes, or secondary sex characteristics.
How is ‘sexual orientation’ defined?
Emotional, romantic, or sexual feelings toward other people. It includes various identities such as straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and asexual.
Sexual orientation is part of the human condition, while sexual behavior involves choices made in acting on one’s orientation.
What is ‘social transition’?
Transitioning in the context of everyday life and social space, without necessarily taking steps to medically transition.
What are standards of care (SOC)?
Guidelines developed by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) to assist health providers in caring for transgender people.
What does ‘stealth’ mean in a transgender context?
A term used to describe transgender individuals who do not disclose their transgender status in their public lives.
What is the definition of ‘transgender’?
A term that describes people whose gender expression does not conform to cultural norms and/or whose gender identity differs from their sex assigned at birth. It is considered an umbrella term encompassing various identities.
People may or may not decide to alter their bodies hormonally and/or surgically.
What does ‘transition’ involve?
Altering one’s assigned sex is a complex process that occurs over time, including social, cultural, legal, and medical adjustments.
What is a ‘trans man’?
A transgender person who was assigned female at birth and identifies as a man.
What is the term ‘Transsexual’?
A more specific term for transgender individuals who undergo medical transition (hormone therapy or surgery) to align their body with their gender identity.
Not all transgender people are transsexual, as some choose not to medically transition.
What is a Trans woman?
A person who is transgender who was assigned male at birth and identifies as a woman.
What does TGNC stand for?
Acronym which stands for trans and gender nonconforming. Often used when talking about groups of people with diverse gender identities.
What is meant by ‘Third gender/third sex’?
A term that incorporates genders other than male or female such as the Fa’afafine in Samoa, Kathoey or Ladyboys in Thailand, and Hijras in India and Pakistan. Some people in the United States, especially in communities of color, use the term third gender to self-identify.
What does ‘Two spirit’ refer to?
A self-identity adopted by some indigenous North American people who take on a multitude of gender roles, identities, and expressions. Those who identify as Two Spirit often see themselves as embodying both masculine and feminine spirits and characteristics.
