Opposite of gay

Transgender people may be straight, lesbian, gay or bisexual. Gender identity and sexual orientation are not the same. For example, a man who transitions from male to female and is attracted to other women would be identified as a lesbian or a gay woman.

transgender-specific terminology

• Cross-Dressing - To occasionally wear clothes traditionally associated with people of the other sex.

  Preferred term to “sex change operation.” Not all transgender people choose to or can afford to have SRS.

• Transgender - An umbrella term (adj.) for people whose gender identity and/or gender expression differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. A “Transsexual” individual must go through several years of hormones and psychological evaluation and live as the “opposite” or “desired” gender prior to receiving the surgery (see intersex).

• Gender Role  - A societal expectation of how an individual should act, think, and/or feel based upon an assigned gender in relation to society’s binary biological sex system.

• Heterosexual - An adjective used to describe people whose enduring physical, romantic and/or emotional attraction is to people of the opposite sex.

  Cross-dressers are usually comfortable with the sex they were assigned at birth and do not wish to change it. There are many diverse ways of being asexual.

• Biphobia - The fear, hatred, or intolerance of bisexual people.

• Bisexual, Bi - An individual who is physically, romantically and/or emotionally attracted to men and women.

  This may refer to how an individual dresses, their general appearance, the way they speak, and/or the way they carry themselves. Unless they are drag performers, most Trans people would be offended by being confused with drag queens or drag kings.

• Gay - The adjective used to describe people whose enduring physical, romantic and/or emotional attractions are to people of the same sex (e.g., gay man, gay people).

  Many visibly intersex babies/children are surgically altered by doctors to make their sex characteristics conform to societal binary norm expectations. Cross-dressing is not indicative of sexual orientation.

• Gender Identity Disorder (GID) - A controversial DSM-IV diagnosis given to transgender and other gender-variant people.

  

  Pronouns refer to either a noun that has already been mentioned or to a noun that does not need to be named specifically. The term “straight” often has a negative connotation within the LGBTQ population, because it suggested that non heterosexual individuals are “crooked” or “unnatural”.

• Transvestite - This term is often thought to be outdated, problematic, and generally offensive, since it was historically used to diagnose medical/mental health disorders.

• Women Loving Women (WLW)  - Commonly used by communities of color to denote the attraction of women to women.

• Zie & Hir - The most common spelling for gender neutral pronouns.

  Avoid identifying gay people as “homosexuals” an outdated term considered derogatory and offensive to many lesbian and gay people.

• Gender Expression  - Refers to how an individual expresses their socially constructed gender. However, it is not universally accepted even within the LGBT community and should be avoided unless someone self-identifies that way.

• Questioning - The process of considering or exploring one’s sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

• Sexual Orientation - The scientifically accurate term for an individual’s enduring physical, romantic and/or emotional attraction to members of the same and/or opposite sex, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and heterosexual (straight) orientations.

  Avoid the offensive term “sexual preference,” which is used to suggest that being gay or lesbian is voluntary and therefore “curable.”

• Sexual Behavior - Refers to an individual’s sexual activities or actions (what a person does sexually). There are many genetic, hormonal or anatomical variations that make a person’s sex ambiguous (e.g., Klinefelter Syndrome).

  Cross-dressing is a form of gender expression and is not necessarily tied to erotic activity. For transgender 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.

  Because it labels people as “disordered,” Gender Identity Disorder is often considered offensive. Gender identity is an internalized realization of one’s gender and may not be manifested in their outward appearance (gender expression) or their place in society (gender role). As there is no one straight lifestyle, there is no one lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender lifestyle.

• Men Loving Men (MLM)  - Commonly used by communities of color to denote the attraction of men to men.

• Men Who Have Sex with Men - men, including those who do not identify themselves as homosexual or bisexual, who engage in sexual activity with other men (used in public health contexts to avoid excluding men who identify as heterosexual).

• Openly Gay - Describes people who self-identify as lesbian or gay in their personal, public and/or professional lives.

  Some lesbians may prefer to identify as gay (adj.) or as gay women.

• LGBTQQIA  - An acronym used to refer to all sexual minorities: “Lesbian, Gay/Gender Neutral/Gender Queer, Bisexual/Bigender, Transgender/Transvestite/Transsexual, Questioning/Queer, Intersex, and Allies/Androgynous/Asexual.”

• Lifestyle - (see Offensive Terms to Avoid) Inaccurate term used by anti-gay extremists to denigrate lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender lives.

  Because of the clinical history of the word “homosexual,” it is aggressively used by anti-gay extremists to suggest that gay people are somehow diseased or psychologically/emotionally disordered – notions discredited by the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association in the 1970s.

• Offensive: “homosexual relations/relationship,” “homosexual couple,” “homosexual sex,” etc.

• Preferred: “relationship” (or “sexual relationship”), “couple” (or, if necessary, “gay couple”), “sex,” etc.

• Identifying a same-sex couple as “a homosexual couple,” characterizing their relationship as “a homosexual relationship,” or identifying their intimacy as “homosexual sex” is extremely offensive and should be avoided.

• As a rule, try to avoid labeling an activity, emotion or relationship “gay,” “lesbian” or “bisexual” unless you would call the same activity, emotion or relationship “straight” if engaged in by someone of another orientation.

• Offensive: “sexual preference”

• Preferred: “sexual orientation” or “orientation” The term “sexual preference” is typically used to suggest that being lesbian, gay or bisexual is a choice and therefore can and should be “cured.” Sexual orientation is the accurate description of an individual’s enduring physical, romantic and/or emotional attraction to members of the same and/or opposite sex and is inclusive of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and straight men and women.

• Offensive: “gay lifestyle” or “homosexual lifestyle”

• Preferred: “gay lives,” “gay and lesbian lives” There is no single lesbian, gay or bisexual lifestyle.

  For example, it is grammatically incorrect to turn transgender into a participle, as it is an adjective, not a verb, and only verbs can be used as participles by adding an “-ed” suffix.

• Problematic: “sex change,” “pre-operative,” “post-operative”

• Preferred: “transition” Referring to a sex change operation, or using terms such as pre- or post-operative, inaccurately suggests that one must have surgery in order to transition.