A Quick Guide to the LGBTQIA2S+ Community
I am a nonbinary lesbian (sometimes I’ll say nonbinary and gay). Specifically, I am genderfluid and agender—my sense of being male, female, or neither shifts and changes, sometimes settling into one identity for days, weeks, or even years before changing again. I think of myself as a mesh of everything, and don’t really identify as a man or a woman. My pronouns are she/they, meaning I’m comfortable being referred to as either she/her or they/them.
This guide is for anyone in our community who may be less familiar with LGBTQIA+ terminology—and if you have questions, I’m happy to answer them. This is not a complete list of all the terms used in the community—it is meant to be a quick explanation to help anyone who is not as familiar with us.
You may see the letters written in a variety of ways: LGBT, LGBTQ, LGBTQIA, LGBTQ+, LGBTQIA+, 2SLGBTQIA+, or LGBTQIA2S+. Some older versions don’t include the full range of identities we recognize today.
The Letters
L — Lesbian: Women who are romantically and/or sexually attracted to other women.
G — Gay: Men who are romantically and/or sexually attracted to other men. It also functions as an umbrella term for anyone attracted to people of the same sex or gender.
B — Bisexual: A person who experiences attraction to both men and women.
T — Transgender: An umbrella term for anyone whose gender identity does not correspond to the sex and/or gender they were assigned at birth. This includes trans men, trans women, and nonbinary folks.
Q — Queer and/or Questioning: A broad term encompassing a wide range of gender identities and sexual orientations. Though historically used as a slur against the LGBTQIA+ community, it has been reclaimed as a term of pride and empowerment.
I — Intersex: Refers to folks whose chromosomes, hormones, or physical sex characteristics combine in ways that fall outside the standard medical and social classifications of male and female.
A — Asexual and/or Agender: Asexual folks experience little to no sexual attraction or interest in sexual activity. Agender folks fall under the nonbinary umbrella and feel genderless.
2S — Two-Spirit: A term used by some Indigenous peoples to describe a person who embodies a fluid sense of gender and attraction, often connected to cultural, community, and spiritual roles.
+ — Plus: Represents all other identities and sexual orientations not explicitly named in the acronym.
Additional Definitions
Nonbinary: An umbrella term that also falls under the transgender umbrella. Nonbinary folks may identify with elements of both manhood and womanhood, with another gender entirely, or with no gender at all. While some nonbinary people identify as transgender, not everyone does.
Genderfluid: A term under the nonbinary umbrella referring to folks whose gender identity shifts and changes over time.
Agender: Refers to folks who feel genderless. Falls under both the nonbinary and, for some, the transgender umbrella.
Pansexual: A person who experiences attraction to people of a variety of genders and/or sexes.
Demisexual: Refers to folks who only experience attraction after forming a close emotional bond with another person.
Genderqueer: A person whose gender exists outside of, or challenges, the binary.
Cis / Cisgender: A person who identifies with the gender and sex they were assigned at birth. Simply put: if someone is not transgender, they are cisgender.
I’m here if you have any questions!
Chris