Table 1.

Definitions

Asexual	A term use to describe someone who has little or no sexual attraction to others. Asexual people can experience other forms of attraction.
Bisexual	Someone who experiences sexual, romantic, physical, and/or spiritual attraction to people of their own gender as well as toward another gender. (sometimes shortened to “bi”)
Cisgender	A term used to describe people whose gender identity is congruent with what is traditionally expected based on their sex assigned at birth.
Gay	A term used to describe boys/men who are attracted to boys/men, but often used and embraced by people with other gender identities to describe their same-gender attractions and relationships as well. Often referred to as ‘homosexual,’ though this term is no longer used by the majority of people with same-gender attractions.
Gender diverse	A term used to describe people whose gender identity is not constrained by binary concepts of gender.
Gender expression	The ways in which a person communicates femininity, masculinity, androgyny, or other aspects of gender, often through speech, mannerisms, gait, or style of dress. Everyone has ways in which they express their gender.
Gender identity	A person’s inner sense of being a girl/woman, a boy/man, a combination of girl/woman and boy/man, something else, or having no gender at all. Everyone has a gender identity.
Gender minority	A broad diversity of people who experience an incongruence between their gender identity and what is traditionally expected based on their sex assigned at birth, such as transgender and gender diverse persons.
Gender non-binary	A term used by some people who identify as a combination of girl/woman and boy/man, as something else, or as having no gender. Often used interchangeably with “gender non-conforming.”
Gender non-conforming	A term used by some people who identify as a combination of girl/woman and boy/man, as something else, or as having no gender. Often used interchangeably with “gender non-binary.”
Lesbian	Used to describe girls/women who are attracted to girls/women; applies for cisgender and transgender girls/women. Often referred to as ‘homosexual,’ though this term is no longer used by the majority of women with same-gender attractions.
Queer	Historically a derogatory term used against LGBTQ people, it has been embraced and reclaimed by LGBTQ communities. Queer is often used to represent all individuals who identify outside of other categories of sexual and gender identity. Queer may also be used by an individual who feels as though other sexual or gender identity labels do not adequately describe their experience.
Sex assigned at birth	Usually based on phenotypic presentation (i.e., genitals) of an infant and categorized as female or male; distinct from gender identity.
Sex	Biological sex characteristics (chromosomes, gonads, sex hormones, and/or genitals); male, female, intersex. Synonymous with “sex assigned at birth.”
Sexual minority	A broad diversity of people who have a sexual orientation that is anything other than heterosexual/straight, and typically includes gay, bisexual, lesbian, queer, or something else.
Sexual orientation	A person’s physical, emotional, and romantic attachments in relation to gender. Conceptually separate from gender identity and gender expression. Everyone has a sexual orientation.
Straight	A boy/man or girl/woman who is attracted to people of the other binary gender than themselves; can refer to cisgender and transgender individuals. Often referred to as heterosexual.
Transgender man	Someone who identifies as male but was assigned female sex at birth.
Transgender woman	Someone who identifies as female but was assigned male sex at birth.

Adapted from Streed et al. 2021.⁷