Gender expression - Gender expression is the external way people convey their gender identity through behavior and physical appearance like clothing choices, body characteristics, speech patterns, etc. Gender identity - Gender identity is an internal feeling of how individuals perceive themselves as male, female, genderqueer, non-binary, etc. Gay - While this adjective has historically described men who are attracted to other men, the term now is used to refer to anyone who experiences romantic, emotional, or physical attraction to people of the same gender. People who use this umbrella term might experience a range of sexual attraction, from zero desire for sex, to occasional sexual attraction, or attraction only alongside a strong emotional bond (demisexuality).īisexual (“bi”) - The term bisexual refers to attraction to people of the same gender and another gender. After all, it’s hard to define a key part of someone’s experience in a single word! But to give you the basics of LGBTQ+ terms, we’ve put together a glossary of common terms you might see or hear.Īsexual (“ace”) - Asexual refers to a lack of interest in sex or sexual contact with other people. What do the letters in LGBTQ+ stand for? These terms don’t have universal definitions since everyone who identifies with a certain label gets to pick what that identity means to them.