Terms Every LGBTQ+ Advocate Should Know

With millions of Americans self-identifying as LGBTQ+ ? and most notably within Generation Z, where one out of five adults self-identify as such ? demonstrations of support for this community within the workplace matter. One way of advocating for your LGBTQ+ coworkers is to learn and use some of the words or phrases used by LGBTQ+ people.

This list references resources from the Human Rights Campaign, The Trevor Project, and NPR. Note that it is non-exhaustive and centers on Western and U.S.-specific language. Other cultures may use different terminology to describe gender identities or sexual orientations. Language is also a living entity, so terms used by the LGBTQ+ community frequently change and evolve.

Advocate: An advocate uses their position of privilege in the workplace not only to support coworkers from underrepresented groups including the LGBTQ+ community, but to defend or speak on their behalf to ensure equity for all.

AFAB/AMAB: Acronyms meeting “assigned female at birth” and “assigned male at birth.”

Asexuality: Asexuality is a sexual orientation like heterosexuality, homosexuality, or bisexuality. Asexual people, who are also known as “ace” or “aces,” may have little interest in sexual connection, but many desire emotionally intimate relationships. Note that asexuality exists on a spectrum, and so some aces may experience sexual attraction, arousal, or desire and some may not.

Bisexuality: Bisexual or bi people may be emotionally, romantically, and sexually attracted to more than one gender but not necessarily simultaneously.

Cisgender or cis: A person whose gender identity aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth.

Deadname: To call a transgender or nonbinary person by their birth name when they have changed their name as part of their gender transition. Although it can be accidental, deadnaming denies, mocks, or otherwise invalidates a person’s gender identity.

Gender: A social construct of norms, behaviors, and/or roles. A person’s gender may be the same or different than the sex they were assigned at birth.

Gender binary: A system of strict gender classification in which all people are categorized as being either male or female. Within the gender binary, a person’s gender identity is expected to align with the sex they were assigned at birth, and gender expressions and/or roles reflect traditional cultural and societal expectations.

Gender dysphoria: Clinically significant distress that occurs when a person’s gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.

Gender expression: The outward appearance of a person’s gender identity through their behavior, clothing, voice, or body characteristics. A person’s gender expression may or may not comply with the socially defined behaviors or characteristics that are commonly associated with femininity or masculinity.

Gender identity: A person’s internal sense of self and their gender ? male, female, both, or neither. A person’s gender identity is not visible to others.

Gender spectrum: The concept that gender exists on a continuum, beyond the male/female or man/woman binary model (see gender binary).

Gender transition: Also referred to as “transitioning,” this a process a person may take to bring themselves and/or their bodies into alignment with their gender identity. Gender transition is not just one step, and transgender people may choose to undergo some, all, or none of the following processes and procedures: gender affirmation surgeries, hormone replacement therapy (HRT), changing their name and pronouns, updating legal documents, and more.

Intersex: A word used to describe people with differences in sex traits or reproductive anatomy that don’t fit typical definitions of male and female. Being intersex is not the same as being nonbinary or transgender, which are terms that are commonly related to gender identity.

Nonbinary: An adjective that describes a person whose gender does not identify exclusively as a man or woman. Many nonbinary people also identify as transgender, but not all.

Pansexuality: Pansexuals may experience emotional, romantic, or sexual attraction regardless of gender identity, gender expression, or biological sex. Pansexuality falls beneath the “bi+ umbrella,” which describes people who rate somewhere toward the middle on the Kinsey scale.

Queer: Initially used as a slur, queer has been reclaimed by some members of the LGBTQ+ community because of the term’s defiance and the way it expresses a spectrum of gender identities and sexual orientations that are counter to the mainstream. Because of the word’s pejorative origin, queer is still sometimes disliked by some LGBTQ+ people. For that reason, it should be used only when self-identifying or referring to someone who self-identifies as queer.