Glossary
Sex. The classification of people as male or female. At birth, infants are assigned a sex based on a combination of bodily characteristics including: chromosomes, hormones, internal reproductive organs, and genitals.
Sexual Orientation. The scientifically accurate term for an individual’s enduring physical, romantic, emotional and/or spiritual attraction to members of the same and/or opposite sex, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and heterosexual orientations.
Gender Identity. One’s internal, personal sense of being a man or a woman (or boy or girl). For transgendered people, their birth-assigned sex and their own internal sense of gender identity do not match.
Gender Expression. External manifestation of one’s gender identity, usually expressed through “masculine,” “feminine,” or gender-variant behavior, clothing, haircut, voice, or body characteristics. Typically, transgendered people seek to make their gender expression match their gender identity, rather than match their birth-assigned sex.
Transgender. An umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or gender expression differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. The term may include, but is not limited to, transsexuals, cross-dressers, and other gender-variant people. Transgendered people may identify as female-to-male (FTM) or male-to-female (MTF). They may be heterosexual, lesbian, gay, or bisexual. Transgendered people may or may not decide to alter their bodies hormonally and/or surgically.
Transsexual. A term that originated in the medical and psychological communities. The term may be used to refer to a transgendered person who is seeking Sex Reassignment. Transsexuals will frequently identify as pre-operative, post-operative, or non-operative.
Transition. A complex process altering one’s birth sex that occurs over a long period of time. Transition includes some or all of the following cultural, legal, and medical adjustments:
Telling one’s family, friends and/or co-workers;
Changing one’s name and/or sex on legal documents;
Hormone therapy; and
Possibly (though not always) some form of surgical alteration.
LGBT / GLBT. Acronyms for “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered.”
LGBTQIA / GLBTQIA. Acronyms for “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, Questioning, Intersex, and Allies.”
Sex Reassignment. Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS) refers to the various surgical alterations which a transsexual may elect to undergo to bring the genitals in alignment with one’s gender identity.
Cross-Dressing. To occasionally wear clothes traditionally associated with people of the other sex . Cross-dressers are usually comfortable with the sex they were assigned at birth and do not wish to change it.
