Terms to Know

Below is a glossary of the many terms and identities of the LGBTQIA+ community. We at Out Front Theatre Company continuously strive to be more inclusive and accepting, so if you have any suggestions for edits or additions to the list below please contact brady@outfronttheatre.com.

Special thanks to Ash Hardell for crafting some of these definitions!

Abrosexual/romantic: Someone who is sexually fluid and/or experiences a fluid and/or changing orientation.
Ace: An umbrella term for someone under the asexual spectrum; also shorthand for the term “asexual”.
Agender/genderless: Someone is without gender, gender neutral, and/or rejects the concept of gender for themselves.
Alexigender: A gender that is fluid between more than one gender but the individual cannot identify what those genders are.
Ally: Someone who does not identify under the LGBTQIA+ spectrum, but actively supports the community.
Androgyne: A non-binary gender in which a person is both male and female, neither male or female, and/or somewhere in between male and female.
Androgynesexual/romantic: Someone who is attracted to someone who is androgynous.
Androgynous: Someone who possess qualities that are typically associated as both masculine and feminine, neither masculine nor feminine, and/or somewhere in between masculine and feminine.
Aporagender: Both specific gender identity and an umbrella term for being a non-binary gender separate from man, woman, and anything in between while still having a very strong and specific gendered feeling.
Appropriation: Borrowing or adopting something as one’s own when it originated in from someone else or a different culture; usually occurs without proper understanding, credit, and/or permission.
Aro: An umbrella term for any identity on the aromantic spectrum; shorthand for “aromantic”
Aromantic: Either an umbrella or stand-alone identifier for someone who experiences little or no romantic attraction.
Asexual: Either an umbrella or stand-alone identifier for someone who experiences little or no sexual attraction.
Autosexual/romantic: A person who has sex with themselves and/or is aroused by their own body.
Bicurious: Someone curious about having sexual/romantic attractions and/or experiences with more than one gender and/or sex.
Binary: The rigid way society divides sex and gender into only two categories: 1) male/men and 2) female/women.
Bigender: A person whose sense of personal identity encompasses two genders.
Bisexual/romantic: A person emotionally, physically, and/or sexually attracted to people of more than one sex and/or gender. This attraction does not have to be equally split between genders and there may be a preference for one gender over others.
CAFAB/CAMAB: “Coercively assigned female at birth” and “coercively assigned male at birth.”
Cisgender:Cis: A person who identifies with the gender they were assigned at birth.
Demiflux: A gender identity where one part is static, and the other(s) fluctuate(s) in intensity.
Demigender: Someone who has/experiences a partial connection to more than one or more genders.
Demisexual/romantic: Someone who only experiences attraction with those whom they have formed a strong emotional bond with.
Diamoric: A non-binary person may identify as diametric as a way to emphasize their own non-binary identity and their attraction to/relationship(s) with other non-binary people; or, a diametric relationship or attraction is one that  involves at least one non-binary person.
DFAB/AFAB/FAAB: “Designated female at birth,” “assigned female at birth,” or “female assigned at birth.”
Enby: A slang term meaning “a non-binary person.”
Erasure: When an identity or group is given insufficient representation, made invisible, or its existence is invalidated.
Female to Female/FTF: Someone whose sex and/or gender was assigned male at birth and who rejects that they were ever male.
Fluid: Not fixed; able to chance.
-flexible: Suffix indicating someone that someone is predominantly attracted to one gender but allows and acknowledges exceptions (ie. heteroflexible, homoflexible, etc.)
-flux: Suffix that a person’s attractions fluctuate in amount or intensity (ie. biflux, triflux, polyflkux, etc.)
FTM: “Female to Male.”
Gay: Term used in some cultural settings to represent males who are attracted to males in a romantic, erotic, and/or emotional sense. Also an umbrella term used to refer to the LGBTQIA+ community as a whole, or as an individual identity label for anyone who does not identify as heterosexual.
Gender: The state of being a man, a woman, both, neither, somewhere in between, or something entirely different; or, a system or classification rooted in social ideas about masculinity and femininity.
Gender Confusion/Gender F*ck: A person who deliberately seeks to cause, or enjoys when they create, confusion in regards to their own gender.
Gender Dysphoria: The distress a person experiences as a result of the sex and gender they were assigned at birth. In this case, the assigned sex and gender do not match the person’s gender identity.
Gender Euphoria: Extreme happiness, or comfortability, experiences because a person’s gender is being affirmed.
Gender Expression: The manifestation of one’s gender.
Gender Identity: The identifier (or lack of identifier) someone uses to communicate how they understand their personal gender, navigate within or outside our societal gender systems, and/or desire to be perceived by others.
Gender Indifferent: Being apathetic about one’s gender/gender expression.
Gender Neutral: Having a gender that is neutral.
Gender Nonconforming/Gender Diverse/Gender Variant/Gender Expansive: Umbrella terms which refer to people who identify and/or express themselves in ways that are different from society’s binary norms.
Gender Roles: Societal positions, behaviors, and/or responsibilities allowed or expected from men and woman based on societal norms.
Genderfluid: Having a gender that changes.
Genderflux: Someone whose experience with gender fluctuates with intensity.
Genderqueer: Someone whose gender exists outside of or beyond the binary concept of gender.
Graysexual/romantic: People who experience very low amounts of attraction, experiences attraction rarely or only under certain conditions, and/or people who are not sure whether they experience attraction.
Graygender: Having a weak sense of gender and/or being somewhat apathetic about one’s gender identity/expression.
Hetereosexual/romantic a.k.a Straight: Being attracted to someone of the opposite binary gender.
Homosexual/romantic: Being attracted to someone to the same or similar gender(s).
IAFAB/IAMAD aka FAFAB/FAMAB: “Intersex Assigned Female/Male at Birth” or “Forcibly Assigned Female/Male at Birth.”
Intergender: A person who identifies between or as a mix of binary genders.
Intersectionality: Ways a person or group’s combined social identities/roles (ie. gender, race, etc.) interact to shape their experience.
Intersex: People whose anatomy does not completely fit into either of society’s typical definitions of male or female.
Lesbian: Term used in some cultural settings to represent females who are attracted to females in a romantic, erotic, and/or emotional sense.
LGBTQIA+: Stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, Intersex, Asexual/Aromantic, and plus for other identities that are not straight and/or not cisgender.
Librafluid: A gender identity that is mostly agender, but has a strong connection that fluctuates between other genders.
Male to Male/MTM: Someone whose sex and/or gender was assigned female at birth and who rejects that their gender was ever female.
Masexuality/romantacism aka Androsexuality/romanticism: Attraction to men and/or masculinity.
Maverique: Someone who has an autonomous gender which exists entirely independent of the binary genders man and woman.
Monosexuality/romanticism: Attraction to a single gender.
MTF: “Male to female.”
Multigender/Polygender: Someone who has/experiences more than one gender.
Multisexuality/romanticism aka Non-monosexuality/romanticism: Attractions to more than one gender.
Neutrosis: Someone whose gender is neutral or null.
Nomasexual/romantic: Someone who is attracted to anyone who isn’t a man.
Non-binary/nb: Existing or identifying outside of the sex/gender binary
Novosexual/romantic: A person whose attractions change based on the gender(s) they are experiencing.
Nowomasexual/romantic: Someone who is attracted to anyone who isn’t a woman.
Omnisexual: Where the individual recognises and is attracted to people of all sexes, genders, and gender identities, with gender as a factor in their attraction.
Pan/Omnigender: People who experience many, and sometimes all, genders.
Pansexual/romantic: Capable of being attracted to any or all gender(s).
Polyamory: The practice of relationships involving more than two people.
Polygender: People experience multiple gender identities, either simultaneously or varying between them.
Polysexual/romantic: Someone who experiences attraction to multiple, but not necessarily all, genders.
Pomosexual: Denying, avoiding or not fitting in any sexual orientation label
Privilege: Benefits and opportunities automatically afforded to majorities or non-oppressed groups of people.
Pronouns: Words used to refer to specific people when their proper names are not being used (ie. he, she, they, ze, ne, e, etc.).
Queer: An umbrella term or identity take on by some LGBTQIA+ people to describe a sexual and/or gender identity that falls outside societal norms. This term has a history of being used as a slur, and although it has been reclaimed by many LGBTQIA+ people, not everyone is comfortable sing it.
Questioning: Being unsure of one’s sexual/romantic orientation or gender identity.
Quoisexual/romantic aka WTFromantic: A person who can’t tell the difference between the attractions they experience, isn’t sure if they experience attraction, and/or doesn’t think romantic and/or sexual attractions are relevant to them.
Recipsexuality/romanticism: Experiencing attraction to someone only after knowing that they are attracted to you.
Same gender loving/SGL: This term refers to Black LGBTQIA+ people.
Sex: A societal construct based on a person’s biology.
Skoliosexual/romantic aka Ceterosexual/romantic: People who are attracted to people of non-binary (nb) genders.
Spectrum: Concepts and models of identities that challenge mainstream beliefs about the rigidity of sexuality and gender.
-spike: A suffix that indicates a person’s attractions fluctuate.
Trans man: Someone who was assigned female at birth but is a man.
Trans woman: Someone who was assigned male at birth but is a woman.
Transfeminine: A term used to describe someone who was assigned male at birth, and who has a predominantly feminine gender.
Transgender/Trans: An umbrella term for anyone whose gender identity does not match their sex and/or gender assigned at birth.
Transition: The process of accepting oneself and/or pursuing changes in order ti affirm one’s gender.
Transmasculine: A term used to describe someone who was assigned female at birth, and who has a predominantly masculine gender.
Trigender: Someone who has/experiences three genders.
Trisexual/romantic: Someone who experiences attractions to three genders.
Trysexual/romantic: Someone who is sexually and/or romantically open to experimenting.
Womaexuality/romanticism aka Gynesexuality/romanticism: Attraction to women and/or femininity.
Zedsexual/romantic aka Allosexual/romantic: A person who experiences sexual/romantic attraction; aka someone who is not on the ace/aro spectrum.