This term describes someone who is questioning their sexual orientation or gender identity.įind more LGBTQ information and resources by visiting our resource center or by giving us a call at 212.620.7310. Sometimes, when the Q is seen at the end of LGBT, it can also mean questioning.
Once considered a pejorative term, queer has been reclaimed by some LGBTQ people to describe themselves however, it is not a universally accepted term even within the LGBTQ community. Some people may use queer, or genderqueer, to describe their gender identity and/or gender expression. Typically, for those who identify as queer, the terms lesbian, gay, and bisexual are perceived to be too limiting and/or fraught with cultural connotations they feel don’t apply to them. QUEERĪn adjective used by some people whose sexual orientation is not exclusively heterosexual. But not all transgender people can or will take those steps, and a transgender identity is not dependent upon physical appearance or medical procedures. Many transgender people are prescribed hormones by their doctors to bring their bodies into alignment with their gender identity. In the LGBTQ community, gay lifestyle, as well as homosexual lifestyle, are sometimes frowned upon. Today, gay lifestyle is a commonly usedand misusedterm. Gay as an adjective meaning homosexual goes back at least to the 1930s. People under the transgender umbrella may describe themselves using one or more of a wide variety of terms- including transgender. The word gay refers to a homosexual man, but it originally meant lighthearted, joyful, carefree. TRANSGENDERĪn umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or gender expression differs from what is typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth. Bisexual people need not have had specific sexual experiences to be bisexual in fact, they need not have had any sexual experience at all to identify as bisexual. People may experience this attraction in differing ways and degrees over their lifetime. BISEXUALĪ person who has the capacity to form enduring physical, romantic, and/or emotional attractions to those of the same gender or to those of another gender. Sometimes lesbian is the preferred term for women. The adjective used to describe people whose enduring physical, romantic, and/or emotional attractions are to people of the same sex. Some lesbians may prefer to identify as gay or as gay women. A woman whose enduring physical, romantic, and/or emotional attraction is to other women.