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LGBTQIA+ Health NJ

Community education

Support & Understanding

Real questions. Practical guidance. Start where you are—whether you’re learning about yourself, supporting someone you care about, or working with LGBTQIA+ people professionally.

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I’m LGBTQIA+ or exploring

Coming out or disclosure

Think through trust, privacy, safety, dependence, and what you want from the conversation.

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Core idea

Coming out is personal. You do not owe disclosure to everyone, and waiting can be a valid safety or privacy decision.

Keep in mind

  • Who has earned your trust?
  • What do you want from the conversation?
  • Could disclosure affect housing, finances, school, work, or safety?
  • What support would be available afterward?

This guide is educational and does not diagnose, assign an identity, or replace medical care, legal advice, professional ethics, supervision, school or workplace policy, or individualized clinical judgment. Laws and policies can change; verify current information using the linked authoritative sources.

Shared terminology

Glossary

Plain-language definitions used across every pathway.

Sexual orientation

A person’s pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attraction, or the language they use to describe it.

Gender identity

A person’s internal understanding of their gender. It may or may not match the sex they were assigned at birth.

Gender expression

How someone expresses gender through clothing, hair, voice, mannerisms, name, or other aspects of presentation.

Transgender

A term for people whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.

Nonbinary

A term for people whose gender is not exclusively woman or man. People may use nonbinary alone or with other language.

Cisgender

A term for people whose gender identity aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth.

Queer

An identity term some people use for sexual orientation, gender, or community. Because it has also been used harmfully, follow each person’s lead.

Questioning

A term for someone exploring or uncertain about their sexual orientation, gender identity, or both. There is no required timeline for choosing a label.

Coming out

The personal process of recognizing or sharing information about one’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

Outing

Sharing someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity without their consent.

Outing can affect trust, safety, housing, family relationships, school, work, and healthcare.
Deadname / deadnaming

A deadname is a former name a transgender or gender-diverse person no longer uses. Deadnaming is using it after being told the name the person uses now.

Pronouns

Words used in place of a person’s name, such as she/her, he/him, they/them, or other pronouns.