Key Terms
About 2SLGBTQ+
2S: refers to ‘two spirit’ which is a term that incorporates Indigenous views of gender and sexual diversity and encompasses sexual, gender, cultural, and spiritual identities. The term two spirit may be used among some Indigenous communities/peoples rather than, or in addition to, identifying as LGBTQ+.
Lesbian: A person who is primarily attracted to people of the same gender. It is most often used for women who are romantically and/or sexually attracted to other women.
Gay: A person who is primarily attracted to people of the same gender. Although it can be used for any gender, it is most often used for men who are romantically and/or sexually attracted to other men.
Bisexual: A person who is attracted to more than one gender (including non-binary and gender-diverse people).
Transgender: A person whose gender identity does not align with their assigned sex and birth. (By contrast, cisgender people feel that their gender identity aligns with their assigned sex at birth.) People who identify as transgender may or may not choose to undergo gender confirming surgeries, and they can identify with any sexual orientation.
Queer: is an umbrella term that refers to different kinds of sexual and gender identities beyond heterosexual or cisgender. Queer was historically used as a derogatory term but has been reclaimed by many groups as a way of self-identifying and/or as a political statement against oppression.
This sign encompasses all gender identities and sexualities not captured by the 2SLBTBQ+ acronym, including but not limited to:
Asexual: A person who does not feel sexual attraction or desire to any group of people.
Questioning: A term used by some people to describe their sexual orientation as being a process of exploration and discovery.
Pansexual: A person who experiences attraction to people of varying gender identities and sexual orientations.
Intersex: A person whose biological sex is neither distinctly male nor distinctly female, or is both. Some cultures recognize up to 7 genders, with distinctly male on one end and distinctly female on the other end.
Gender-fluid: A term used to describe people whose gender identity is not static.
Non-binary: A term with multiple meanings which is often used by a person whose gender identity does not align with a binary understandings of gender such as ‘man’ or ‘woman’.
Non-gendered or agender: A term used by some people who do not identify as having a gender. Some folks who identify as non-gendered or as agender do so to critique heteronormative assumptions and societal expectations that support and/or promotes heterosexuality and a strict gender binary as the only natural and acceptable expression.
