LGBTQ+ glossary: Understanding the concepts, terms used by the community

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MANILA, Philippines – As an individual begins to explore the complexities of their identity and how they choose to love and be loved, they’ll naturally seek out ways to describe their lived experiences.

And over time — whether you are a part of the community yourself or are a doting ally — you will come to learn that the words that make up the LGBTQ+ acronym are just the tip of the iceberg. One’s SOGIESC (which you’ll learn the meaning of as you read on) isn’t black and white.

That said, here’s a list of concepts and terms that fall under the vast LGBTQ+ spectrum, and what each of them mean:

SOGIESC

SOGIESC stands for sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics.

The most common way to understand the concept behind SOGIESC is creative-activist Sam Killermann’s Genderbread person, a model that breaks down each of the term’s components.

Sexual orientation refers to who you are attracted to based on their sex or gender — with terms like bisexual, homosexual, heterosexual, asexual, and pansexual, to name a few, falling under this concept.

Gender identity, meanwhile, is how you would personally define yourself on the vast gender spectrum — as male, female, or genderqueer, among others. The Human Rights Campaign noted that your sexual orientation and gender identity are independent of each other.

One’s gender expression, however, refers to how you would display your gender in the ways you deem fit, whether it’s through the way you choose to dress, act, or accessorize. Following the Genderbread person model, terms that fall under “gender expression” include feminine, masculine, or androgynous.

Lastly, sexual characteristics are broken down into two parts: primary and secondary.

One’s primary sexual characteristics cover their reproductive organs like their vagina or penis, while secondary sexual characteristics encompass traits that do not affect reproduction, such as one’s breasts or hair growth.

Gender dysphoria

When individuals feel a disconnect between their sex assigned at birth and their gender identity, they are experiencing a form of psychological distress called “gender dysphoria.”

This is not to be confused with “gender euphoria,” where an individual feels positively about their gender identity and gender expression.

Intersex

According to the United Nations Human Rights office, people who are intersex are born with sex characteristics (e.g., reproductive organs, hormonal and chromosomal patterns, and sexual anatomy) that “do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies.”

An intersex person’s sex characteristics may vary, and their biology may not even align with their physical appearance. For instance, a person born with XX chromosomes — making them biologically female — may develop male characteristics as they grow up.

Non-binary

Non-binary individuals are those who neither define themselves exclusively as a man nor as a woman, identifying themselves beyond the gender binary social construct that only includes males and females.

According to the Human Rights Campaign, “non-binary” can also double as an umbrella term for other identities, such as agender, genderfluid, genderqueer, and bigender.

Lived name

A “lived name” is the name a person would go by to affirm their gender identity. Often, individuals who identify as non-binary or transgender would have a lived name.

A person’s “lived name” is contrary to their “dead name” — the name they were born with but no longer wish to use.

Asexual

According to the Trevor Project, individuals who identify as asexual may feel “little or no sexual attraction and/or experience sexual attraction in a non-normative way.”

Asexual people — or aces — can still build romantic bonds with others, and can even experience sexual attraction when specific conditions are met.

Demisexuals, for instance, may only feel sexual attraction towards a person they’ve formed a strong emotional connection with first.

Aces in general aren’t solely romantically attracted to a specific gender, which means that they would often use prefixes like “hetero,” “homo,” “bi,” or “pan” with the word “romantic” to indicate who they are romantically attracted to. This means that a biromantic asexual can be romantically attracted to both men and women.

The Trevor Project further notes that the asexual umbrella also includes identities like “Grey-A,” which refers to people who are at the midpoint of sexual and asexual.

There are also “Queerplatonic” people, who can feel an emotional connection to someone in the sense that it goes beyond the bounds of friendship, but is not considered romantic.

Gender nonconforming

Individuals who are gender nonconforming are those who do not fit into stereotypes about how they should appear given their sex assigned at birth. For instance, a gender nonconforming female assigned at birth would not typically dress the way women are expected to dress or are expected to act.

Genderfluid

As the suffix “fluid” suggests, a person who is genderfluid does not identify with a singular gender or gender identity.

Queer

Generally, the word “queer” denotes something odd, strange, weird, or out of the ordinary.

In the LGBTQ+ context, however, queer is an all-encompassing umbrella term that refers to a person’s gender identity or sexual orientation falling outside what is considered the norm in society (e.g., straight or heterosexual).

The term “queer” had started out as a derogatory adjective, but many members of the LGBTQ+ community have since gone on to reclaim the word in relation to their identity.