THE DICK-TIONARY
LBTQIAA++… The list goes on, in the community there are many acronyms, phrases and terms which are forever evolving.
To help with this we have created The Dick-tionary! It’s an ever growing list of terms heard in and around the LGBTQ community.
We will aim to keep this as up to date as possible, so please feel free to use the form below to send us your suggestions.
Please note: there are some terms in this list that are historically considered offensive but many have been re-appropriated for common use. There will also be terms that are still considered offensive, however, but we intend to take great care in including this information in the description.
Created by Postulant Donna Matrix
| LGBTQIAA+ Dick-tiornary | Tags | |
|---|---|---|
| Ace | Ace is an umbrella term used to describe a variation in levels of romantic and/or sexual attraction, including a lack of attraction. Ace people may describe themselves using one or more of a wide variety of terms, including, but not limited to, asexual, aromantic, demis and grey-As. | sexuality |
| Agender | A term used by people who don’t see themselves as fitting anywhere on the gender spectrum. Agender people often use ‘without gender’, or ‘genderless’ to also describe what being agender means to them. | gender |
| Ally (Heterosexual Ally, Straight Ally) | Someone who is a friend, advocate, and/or activist for LGBT people. | community |
| Androgynous | Term used to describe an individual whose gender expression and/or identity may be neither distinctly “female” nor “male,” usually based on appearance. | gender |
| Asexual | A sexual orientation generally characterised by not feeling sexual attraction or desire for partnered sexuality. Asexuality is distinct from celibacy, which is the deliberate abstention from sexual activity. Some asexual people do have sex. | sexuality |
| Assigned Sex/ Sex | The sex you were distinguished as when you were born based on ones genitals, chromosomes etc. | physiology |
| Biphobia | The fear, discrimination, prejudice or bullying of a person because they are bisexual or perceived to be bisexual by others. Biphobia is considered a Hate Crime. | prejudice |
| Bisexual, Bi | An individual who is physically, romantically and/or emotionally attracted to men and women. Bisexuals need not have had sexual experience with both men and women; in fact, they need not have had any sexual experience at all to identify as bisexual. | sexuality |
| Butch | Butch is a term used in LBT culture to describe someone who expresses themselves in a typically masculine way. There are other identities within the scope of butch, such as ‘soft butch’ and ‘stone butch’. You shouldn’t use these terms about someone unless you know they identify with them. | identity |
| Cisgender / Cis | A person whose assigned sex and gender identity match up. A person who is not transgender. | gender |
| Coming out | The process of telling others about your sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Someone may come out as transgender where yjru will tell people in their life how they identify themselves in terms of their gender or that they feel that they are trans. The term is also used in regards to the wider LGBT community. | community |
| Cross Dresser / Transvestite | An individual of either sex that likes to wear the clothes commonly associated with the opposite gender, but are otherwise happy with their sex assigned at birth. Cross Dressing is not the same as being trans. | identity |
| Deadnaming | Calling someone by their birth name after they have changed their name. This term is often associated with trans people who have changed their name as part of their transition. | identity |
| Deed Poll/Statutory Declaration | The document used to legally change a person’s name. | community |
| Femme | Femme is a term used in LGBT culture to describe someone who expresses themselves in a typically feminine way. There are other identities within the scope of femme, such as ‘low femme’, ‘high femme’, and ‘hard femme’. You shouldn’t use these terms about someone unless you know they identify with them. | identity |
| FTM/ trans man/ a transgender man | Someone assigned female at birth and identifies as male. | gender |
| Gay | The adjective used to describe people whose physical, romantic and/or emotional attractions are to people of the same sex (e.g., gay man, gay people). Avoid identifying gay people as “homosexuals” an outdated term considered derogatory and offensive to many lesbian and gay people. | sexuality |
| Gender | Often expressed in terms of masculinity and femininity, gender is largely culturally determined and is assumed from the sex assigned at birth | gender |
| Gender Dysphoria | A recognised medical term that refers to the physical, mental and/or social discomfort of the mismatch between a person’s gender identity and their assigned sex. | physiology |
| Gender Expression | Gender expression is the way in which an individual expresses their gender identity, both in terms of self identity, and how others perceive them. This can be through the clothes they wear, or behaviour for example. A person’s gender expression isn’t always the same as their gender identity, and can change depending on things like situation, place, and time. | identity |
| Gender Identity | How a person feels or experiences themselves in regards to their gender. E.g. male/ female/ neither/ both. | gender |
| Gender Fluid | A term used to describe a person who feels that their gender identity is not fixed and/or fluctuates or changes over time. | gender |
| Genderqueer | A term sometimes used by people who feel their gender identity does not fit into the standard socially constructed ideals of male and female. This can include feeling like you are outside of the binary of male and female, or somewhere in between. Genderqueer as an identity is often very subjective and individual to the person using that word and as such can have a variety of different meanings attached to it. | gender |
| GIC | Gender Identity Clinic: a service which provides specialist medical care for trans people. | physiology |
| Homosexual | Outdated clinical term considered derogatory and offensive by many gay and lesbian people. | sexuality |
| Homophobia | The fear, discrimination, prejudice or bullying of a person because they are gay or lesbian or perceived to be gay or lesbian by others. Homophobia is considered a Hate Crime. | community |
| Intersex/ Intergender | An individual born with any of several variations in sex characteristics including chromosomes, sex hormones, or genitals, that are determined as neither exclusively male nor female, or which combine features of the male and female sexes. | gender |
| Lesbian | A woman whose physical, romantic and/or emotional attraction is to other women. Some lesbians may prefer to identify as gay or as gay women. | sexuality |
| Lesbophobia | The fear or dislike of someone because they are or are perceived to be a lesbian. | community |
| LGBT | The acronym for lesbian, gay, bi and trans. | community |
| MTF/ trans woman/ a transgender woman | Someone assigned male at birth and identifies as female. | gender |
| Neurodiverse | A concept where neurological differences are recognised and respected in the same way as any other human difference. | identity |
| Non-binary | To identify outside of the common binary understanding of being exclusively male or female. | gender |
| Oestrogen | The female sex hormone often prescribed to trans women who wish to undergo medical transition. | physiology |
| Openly Gay | Describes people who self-identify as lesbian or gay in their personal, public and/or professional lives. Also openly lesbian, openly bisexual, openly transgender. | community |
| Outing | The act of publicly declaring (sometimes based on rumour and/or speculation) or revealing another person’s sexual orientation or gender identity without that person’s consent. Considered inappropriate by a large portion of the LGBT community. | community |
| Pansexual / Pan | Refers to a person whose romantic and/or sexual attraction towards others is not limited by sex or gender. | sexuality |
| Pronouns | He/ him, she/ her, they/ them, zir/ zi (gender neutral) | identity |
| Queer | Traditionally a pejorative term, queer has been appropriated by some LGBT people to describe themselves. However, it is not universally accepted even within the LGBT community and should be avoided unless someone self-identifies that way. | sexuality |
| Questioning | The process of considering or exploring one’s sexual orientation and/or gender identity. | sexuality |
| Romantic Orientation | A person’s romantic attraction to other people, or lack thereof. Along with sexual orientation, this forms a person’s orientation identity. | sexuality |
| Sex | Assigned to a person on the basis of primary sex characteristics (genitalia) and reproductive functions. Sometimes the terms ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ are interchanged to mean ‘male’ or ‘female’. | physiology |
| Sexual Orientation | The term for an individual’s physical, romantic and/or emotional attraction to members of the same and/or opposite sex, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and heterosexual (straight) orientations. Attraction to people of a certain gender i.e. gay, straight, bisexual, pansexual etc | sexuality |
| Straight/Heterosexual | Used to refer to individuals who identify as a heterosexual, meaning having a sexual, emotional and/or physical attraction to individuals of the “opposite” gender/sex. The term “straight” sometimes has a negative connotation within the LGBT population, because it is suggested that non heterosexual individuals are “crooked” or “bent”. | sexuality |
| Testosterone | The male sex hormone often prescribed to trans men who wish to undergo medical transition. | physiology |
| To gender/ misgender | To presume someone else’s gender identity/ to presume incorrectly. | community |
| Top surgery | A term that trans people may use when referring to surgeries designed to produce a male or female shaped chest. | gender |
| Transition | The process of a person changing from their assigned sex to the gender they identify as. What constitutes as transitioning may be difference for every trans person. | gender |
| Social Transition | This refers specifically to the aspects of transition that are not related to a change in physicality. Examples of social transition are: a change of name/ pronoun, use of toilets or gendered facilities, wearing different clothes or make-up. Every trans person is different, so an individual may choose to make all or some of these changes at some point, but deciding not to make these changes does not invalidate a persons trans identity. | community |
| Medical Transition | This refers specifically to the aspects of transition that are specifically related to a change in a persons body/ physicality. Examples of social transition are: hormone blockers, hormone treatment, surgery, voice therapy or laser hair removal. Every trans person is different, so an individual may choose to make all or some of these changes at some point, but deciding not to make these changes does not invalidate a persons trans identity. | physiology |
| Trans | An umbrella term used to describe an individual or group of people whose gender identity is not aligned or fully aligned with the sex they were assigned at birth. | gender |
| Transphobia | The fear, discrimination, prejudice or bullying of a person because they are trans or perceived to be trans by others. Transphobia is considered a Hate Crime. | community |
| Transexual | This was used in the past as a more medical term (similarly to homosexual) to refer to someone whose gender is not the same as, or does not sit comfortably with, the sex they were assigned at birth. This term is still used by some although many people prefer the term trans or transgender. | gender |
If you would like us to add a new entry into the The Dick-tionary, or would like to request an amendment, please drop us a note below.