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(Adapted from Human Rights Campaign’s and Catalyst’s Glossary of Terms)

An initialism for the community of people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, and any other sexual or gender minority. People often refer to the I as “intersex” and the A as asexual. Some of my colleagues also use the IA to refer to inclusion allies.

The plus symbol (+) at the end of the initialism is significant because it’s a symbol of all things on the gender and sexuality spectrum that have yet to be described or defined. As conversations around sex and gender spectrums continue to evolve, new terms will emerge and become prevalent in this space.

Originally, the first four letters of the LGBTQIA+ initialism were commonly used to group various sexual and gender minorities. Although it was first considered an evolution toward inclusion, these four letters proved to be limiting to individuals who didn’t identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.

You can refer to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC; hrc.org) to remain up to date on terms and resources related to LGBTQ issues.

Other LGBTQ terms include the following:

 Sex: Biological classification of male or female based on reproductive organs and functions.

 Lesbian: Women and nonbinary people who are attracted to women may use this term to describe themselves.

 Gay: Men, women, and nonbinary who are attracted to people of the same gender may use this term to describe themselves.

 Bisexual: A person who is attracted to more than one sex, gender, or gender identity may use this term to describe themselves. These attractions don’t necessarily occur simultaneously, in the same way, or to the same degree.

 Transgender: People who feel that the gender assigned to them based on their biological sex is a false or incomplete definition of themselves. Being transgender doesn’t imply any specific sexual orientation. Therefore, transgender people may identify as straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and so on.

 Queer: This term is often used as a catch-all adjective to describe many people, including those who don’t identify as exclusively straight and/or folks who have nonbinary or gender-expansive identities. This term was previously used as a slur but has been reclaimed by many parts of the LGBTQ movement.