Table 1.

Terms relevant to sexual and gender minority health

Terms relating to sexual orientation
Sexual orientation (noun)	Refers to how a person characterizes their physical, emotional, or romantic attachments in relation to gender. Separate from gender identity. Can be defined based on sexual identity, sexual behavior, and/or sexual attraction
Sexual minority (noun)	Refers to individuals who have a sexual orientation that is anything other than heterosexual. Can include lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer individuals as well as persons with other sexual orientations
Queer (adjective)	Queer is frequently used as an umbrella term to represent all individuals who identify outside traditional categories for sexual orientation and gender identity. Historically a derogatory term used against sexual and gender minority individuals. It has been reclaimed by many sexual and gender minority individuals as a term of empowerment
Heterosexual (adjective)	Refers to individuals who are attracted to people of a gender different than their own. Often used interchangeably with “straight.” Cisgender and transgender individuals may identify as heterosexual
Terms relating to sex and gender
Sex (noun)	Refers to biological and anatomical sex characteristics (including chromosomes, gonads, sex hormones, and/or genitals). Categories include male, female, and intersex. Often used interchangeably with “sex assigned at birth” or “biological sex.”
Sex assigned at birth (noun)	Used to describe an infant based on their external anatomy and typically categorized as male or female; different from gender identity
Gender identity (noun)	Refers to a person’s inner sense of being a boy/man, a girl/woman, a combination of boy/man and girl/woman, having no gender at all, or something else
Gender minority (noun)	Refers to individuals who experience an incongruence between their gender identity and what is typically expected based on their sex assigned at birth. Can include transgender, gender non-binary persons, intersex, and other gender diverse persons
Cisgender (adjective)	A gender identity used to describe people whose gender identity is consistent with societal expectations based on their sex assigned at birth. A female-identified person who was assigned female sex at birth would be considered a cisgender female or woman
Gender non-binary (adjective)	A term used by people who identify outside the typical expectations of the gender binary. This term is often used interchangeably with “gender non-conforming,” which is considered more outdated