Why are labels important?
“These labels save lives. These labels create a powerful sense of understanding and self-acceptance. The fact that the acronym has become a target for mockery only indicates the amount of work that still needs to be done around LGBTQIA+ civil rights.” — Alex Myers (2018)

Inclusive: Makes all subgroups (gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, ability, national origin, documentation, etc.) within the queer community valued and important.

Intersectional: Acknowledges that each person has various social identities, such as race, gender, sexuality, class, ability, etc., that interact and contribute to that person's experience of the world and specific oppression in a way that is not additive, but unique. e.g. Racism works differently towards different genders. Note: “Intersectionality” was originally coined by law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw to describe the gap between the theory of protected classes and the practice of using law to address racism and sexism.

LGBTQIA2+
Lesbian: refers to a woman who is predominantly sexually and/or romantically attracted to other women. “Lesbian” can include nonbinary folks. Some women prefer the term “gay”. Note: “Lesbian” comes first in the initialism to honor lesbians' work during the HIV/AIDs crisis.

Gay: refers to a man who is predominantly sexually and/or romantically attracted to other men. “Gay” can also refer to any person who is predominantly sexually and/or romantically attracted to people of the same gender.

Bisexual: refers to a person who is sexually and/or romantically attracted to both people of the same gender and people of different genders. “Bisexual” can also be used as an umbrella term for anyone with attraction to more than one gender.

Transgender: refers to any person whose gender identity does not correspond to the sex they were assigned at birth. “Transgender” can be used as an umbrella term which includes Nonbinary people and does not require or imply social or physical transition. Antonym: Cisgender

Queer: refers to people of any sexual orientation, any gender identity, or any gender expression that exists outside of cisgender, heterosexual, and allosexual identities. Some people view this as a reclaimed term of empowerment, and some view “queer” as a slur. It’s important to let people self-identify and follow their lead.

Questioning: refers to a person who is exploring or unsure about their sexual orientation and/or gender identity and is in the process of coming to know themselves. Folks can question at any age for any length of time.

Interse.g. refers to a person whose anatomy, genetics, and/or hormones vary from that of ‘male’ or ‘female’. Anyonym: Dyadic.

Asexual (Ace): refers to a person with low or absent sexual or physical attraction to any gender. “Asexual” can be used as an umbrella term which includes greysexual and demisexual people. Someone who is “asexual” may still desire romantic connections. Antonym: Allosexual

Aromantic (Aro): refers to a person with low or absent romantic attraction to any gender. An “aromantic” person may still desire sexual or physical connections

Two-Spirit (2): refers to other genders and sexualities believed to be common among most, if not all, first peoples of Turtle Island (North America), ones that had proper and respected places within native societies. “Two-Spirit” is an umbrella term that has different meanings in different indigenous nations but bridges those multiple understandings of other genders and sexualities in a contemporary context. Note: “Two-Spirit” should not be used as an identity label for people who are not native/indigenous.

Plus (+): refers to people who are not cisgender, allosexual, and heterosexual, but who prefer not to use identity labels or whose identity labels are not explicitly named in the initialism, such as “Demisexual”, “Pansexual”, etc. “Plus” is meant to include people who fall under the umbrella of sexual orientation, romantic orientation, gender identity, and/or gender expression minorities who do not feel comfortable or covered by the above defined words.

More Gender Related Terms
Gender Identity: refers to a person's internal sense of being a man, woman, both, another gender, or no gender at all. “Gender Identity” does not necessarily correlate with sex assigned at birth and is not visible. e.g. girl, boy, woman, man, nonbinary, agender, etc.

Gender Expression: refers to the physical manifestation of a person's gender through clothing, hairstyle, voice, body, behavior, and more. “Gender Expression” may be aligned with a person's gender identity or it may be different. “Gender Expression” is both culture-dependent and time-dependent.

Drag King, Drag Queen, Drag Artist: refers to a person who uses gender expression as a means of art, performance, and/or entertainment.

Sex Assigned At Birth: refers to a classification as male, female, or intersex based on genitalia or chromosomes detected near the start of life. 'Assigned' is used as this is typically determined based on visual cues with no input from the person being assigned.

Dyadic: refers to a person whose anatomy, genetics, and/or hormones are prescriptive of only either ‘male’ or ‘female’.

Non-Binary (enby): refers to a person who is not exclusively a man or a woman. They may be both, somewhere in between, no gender/agender, or neither; their gender identity and/or expression expands beyond or does not conform to social-cultural expectations of gender. Non-binary can be used as an umbrella term for folks who use other terms, like: agender, genderqueer, gender-expansive, gender fluid, two-spirit, and more.

Binding: refers to the process of temporarily reshaping one's chest with constricting material or tape to create a flatter appearance.

Transition: refers to a process of making changes to a person's gender expression to reflect their gender identity. “Transition” may include social transition, hormonal transition, and/or surgical transition (also called gender affirming surgery). Note: not everyone transitions and those who do may or may not do so in all of these ways.

Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT): refers to administering hormones to alter secondary sexual characteristics.
Cisgender: refers to a person whose gender identity aligns with their sex assigned at birth. “Cisgender” would describe a woman who was assigned female at birth.

More Sexuality Related Terms
Sexual Attraction: refers to whom a person desires to be physically or sexually intimate with. A person may experience “sexual attraction” towards men, women, other genders, more than one gender, or no genders at all.

Romantic Attraction: refers to whom a person desires to be romantically or emotionally intimate with. A person may experience “romantic attraction” towards men, women, other genders, more than one gender, or no genders at all. Note: “Romantic attraction” and “sexual attraction” may or may not align. e.g. a person may experience “sexual attraction” to men and “romantic attraction” to women and nonbinary people.

Pansexual: refers to a person who experiences sexual and/or romantic attraction to all genders or attraction regardless of gender.

Demisexual: refers to a person who experiences limited sexual attraction until emotional connections are formed. “Demisexuals” may experience stronger sexual attraction as they become more emotionally connected to a person.

Allosexual: refers to a person with average or high sexual or physical attraction to at least one gender.

Straight: refers to a woman who is sexually and/or romantically attracted to men or refers to a man who is sexually and/or romantically attracted to women. Note: Sometimes refered to as “heterosexual”.

Even More Terms
Binary: refers to a system in which two concepts are mutually exclusive. e.g. Yes or No.

Erasure: refers to deliberate or accidental lack of representation of a group in media, education, history, or academic research.

Classism: refers to the cultural, institutional, and individual set of practices and beliefs that assign value to people according to socioeconomic status.

Racism: refers to the mix of discrimination, domination, and antagonism that maintains the power and privilege of one race over another. In the US, racism manifests as the belief that whiteness or even lightness is superior.

Sexism: refers to the prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination on the basis of sex. It often involves the belief that one gender and/or sex is inferior, less competent, or less valuable than another or others. In the US, sexism manifests as the belief that patriarchy, manhood, or masculinity is superior.

Misogyny: refers to the dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women. The misogyny faced by trans women, lesbians, and women of color can be compounded by other experiences of oppression, greatly inscreaing its harm.

Cissexism: refers to the system of advantages bestowed on people who are cisgender. It can also be the assumption that all people are, or should be, cisgender.

Heterosexism: refers to the system of advantages bestowed on people who are straight. It can also be the assumption that all people are, or should be, heterosexual and gender-conforming.

Compulsory Heterosexuality (CompHet): refers to the societal norm of forcing heterosexuality onto people regardless of their actual sexual orientation. “Comphet” can affect any gender. In a heteronormative, patriarchal society, it's effect can be that the identities of people socialized as women are erased or defined by their relationship to men.

Homophobia: refers to negative feelings, attitudes, actions, or behaviors against people who are, or are perceived to not be straight.

Biphobia: refers to negative feelings, attitudes, actions, or behaviors against people who are bisexual or pansexual.

Transphobia: refers to negative feelings, attitudes, actions, or behaviors against people who are, or are perceived to be, transgender or non-binary.

Deadname (or Deadnaming): refers to the name a transgender or non-binary person no longer uses. “Deadnaming”, using this name intentionally, is an extremely disrespectful form of transphobia.

Misgender: refers to deliberate or unintentioal addressing of a person with pronouns, phrases, or references that do not align with that person's gender identity.

Outing: refers to the act of disclosing someone's gender identity and/or sexual orientation without their consent.

Ageism: refers to the privilege of people within a preferred age range in a society. Folks older or younger than this age range may face erasure, invisibility, lack of agency, and discrimination.

Ableism: refers to the discrimination and de-valuing of people who have developmental, emotional, physical, sensory, mental or health-related disabilities.

Antisemitism: refers to hostility or discrimination against Jewish people as a religious, ethnic, or racial group, including stereotyped views and belief that Jewish people are inferior.

Ally: refers to a person who does not identify within a group and advocates for that group's rights.