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
I’m exploring my identity
Make room for curiosity without forcing an answer or label.
Keep in mind
- What language feels useful?
- What feels uncomfortable?
- Where do you feel more like yourself?
- Would a label help, or would you rather not use one?
Language to know
Open a card for a plain-language definition.
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.
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.