Office of Community Enrichment —LGBTQ+ Resource Center

Terms and Definitions

Ally

An individual or group that supports the LGBTQ community.

LGBTQQIAA

Acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, ally

Pansexual

Sexual attraction to people regardless of gender.

Gender Expression

The way a person is seen as male, female, some combination, or neither. Constructed by societal norms.

Lesbian

A woman, woman-aligned and/or feminine-aligned non-binary person who is attracted to women, woman-aligned and/or feminine-aligned non-binary people.

Bisexual

Someone who is attracted to two or more genders.

Sex

Biological differences determined at birth, usually in reference to sexual organs.

Nonbinary

Someone whose gender identity does not fall strictly into the Western gender binary of male/female.

Asexual

A term for people who do not experience sexual attraction toward others.

Cisgender

Someone whose gender identity matches their assigned sex at birth.

Queer

Reclamation of a slur by the LGBT community to represent someone who falls outside of cultural norms around sexuality and gender identity.

Homophobia

Ignorance or fear of non-heterosexual people, including prejudice, discrimination, or harassment.

Heterosexism

Bias against any person that is not exclusively heterosexual, including assuming everyone is heterosexual.

Gay

Attraction towards the same gender. Can be applied to all genders, but is usually used for men.

Gender Identity

A personal sense of one’s own gender. It can correlate with or differ from assigned sex at birth.

Gender

One’s internal sense of identity and relation to socially constructed gender roles.

Intersex

An umbrella term for people born with physical sex characteristics that differ from traditional male or female classifications.

Transgender

A term referring to people whose gender identity differs from the sex assigned to them at birth.

LGBTQ+ Resource Center
Office of Community Enrichment