LGBTQ+: Important Terms and Definitions

Source: www.publicdomainvectors.org

By Sam Piha

"Many LGBTQ+ people use labels to express who they are. These labels can help listeners like you and me understand who that person is and how they wish to identify." – It Gets Better Project

As the mainstream culture diversifies, our language is also evolving, which includes new terms related to sexual identity. It’s important that afterschool workers expand their vocabulary. Below are some LGBTQ+ terms and definitions. These definitions are not intended to label youth but rather to assist in understanding some frequently used terms. Youth may or may not use these terms to describe themselves. 

Source: www.cem.org

 “Language is an extremely powerful tool. It allows us to generate ideas, share stories, and learn and grow from others. Whether spoken, signed, or written, all languages are constantly evolving, and, despite their imperfections, can help us better understand our world and communicate our perspective with others.” – It Gets Better Project

1. LGBTQ+: This stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (or sometimes questioning), and others. The "plus" represents other sexual identities including pansexual and Two-Spirit. The first four letters of the acronym have been used since the 1990s, but in recent years there has been an increased awareness of the need to be inclusive of other sexual identities to offer better representation. 

2. Bisexual: Bisexual indicates an attraction to all genders. The recognition of bisexual individuals is important, since there have been periods when people who identify as bi have been misunderstood as being gay. Bisexuality has included transgender, binary and nonbinary individuals since the release of the "Bisexual Manifesto" in 1990.

3. Transgender: Transgender is a term that indicates that a person's gender identity is different from the gender associated with the sex they were assigned at birth. 

Source: www.pexels.com

4. Queer or Questioning: Though queer may be used by people as a specific identity, it is often considered an umbrella term for anyone who is non-cisgender or heterosexual. But it is also a slur. It should not be placed on all members of the community and should only be used by cisgender and heterosexual individuals when referring to a person who explicitly identifies with it. Questioning refers to people who may be unsure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

5. + (Plus): The 'plus' is used to signify all of the gender identities and sexual orientations that are not specifically covered by the other five initials. 

Source: www.namidanecounty.org

6. Intersectionality: According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, this term is “used to refer to the complex and cumulative way that the effects of different forms of discrimination (such as racism, sexism, and classism) combine, overlap, and yes, intersect—especially in the experiences of marginalized people or groups.” To learn more, see The Trevor Project- What is Intersectionality, Really? 

7. Gender identity: A person’s deeply held sense or psychological knowledge of their own gender, regardless of the gender they were assigned at birth. Everyone has a gender identity. 

8. Gender expression: This refers to the way a person expresses gender, such as clothing, hairstyles, activities, or mannerisms. 

Source: www.pexels.com

9. Gender Nonconforming: Describes people whose gender expression differs from stereotypical expectations, such as “feminine” boys, “masculine” girls, and those who are perceived as androgynous. 

10. Genders & Sexualities Alliance (GSA): Genders & Sexualities Alliances, or GSAs for short, are student-run organizations that unite LGBTQ+ and allied youth to build community and organize around issues impacting them in their schools and communities. GSAs have evolved beyond their traditional role to serve as safe spaces for LGBTQ+ youth in middle schools and high schools and have emerged as vehicles for deep social change related to racial, gender, and educational justice.

11. Nonbinary: A person whose gender identity does not conform to the gender binary, which is the erroneous idea that only two distinct and opposite genders exist, male and female.

12. Pronoun: A word used in place of a name to refer to someone, often in relation to their gender. Gendered pronouns include she/her/hers and he/him/his. (For example, "She marched in the Pride Parade.") Gender-neutral pronouns include they/them/theirs, used in the singular. (For example, "They are a member of the GSA.") There are also neopronouns that include ze/zir/zirs, ey/em/eirs, and per/per/pers, as well as many others. To learn more, see Pronouns 101 from The Human Rights Campaign.

13. Afterschool programs: Community-based and school-based youth programs that are conducted before or after the school day and during the summer. These programs are also referred to as afterschool, out-of-school time (OST), youth programs or summer learning programs. 

(Definitions 1-5 were drawn from an article by Kendra Cherry on www.verywellmind.com; definitions 7-9 were drawn from an article by the California Safe School Coalition); definition 10 is drawn from The Genders & Sexualities Alliance Network; definitions 11- 12 were drawn from the It Gets Better Project). 

For more terms and definitions, see the LGBTQ+ Glossary from the It Gets Better Project.

To see additional tools to ensure a sense of safety for all youth, see our Youth Development Guide 2.0 here. Also available is a new briefing paper on supporting LGBTQ youth. Feel free to share these resources with your network.

The Gender Creative Child: A Radio Interview with Dr. Diane Ehrensaft

By Sam Piha

Sam Piha

It is important that educators and youth development specialists understand the latest thinking on the needs of transgender youth. To support this, we worked with Diane Ehrensaft to develop a briefing paper entitled Understanding Gender Identity in Young People: A Briefing Paper for Afterschool Programs. We also interviewed Dr. Ehrensaft, which we posted on our LIAS blog in two parts (see Part 1 and Part 2). 

Dr. Ehrensaft, co-founder of UCSF’s Child and Adolescent Gender Center, coined the term “gender creative child” to describe children whose gender identity is not reflected in the male or female box that was checked on their birth certificates. 

Mina Kim (Left) | Dr. Diane Ehrensaft (Right)

Dr. Ehrensaft talked with Mina Kim on KQED’s Forum program about the experience of gender nonconformity and discussed her new book, “The Gender Creative Child: Pathways for Nurturing and Supporting Children Who Live Outside Gender Boxes.” We thought our readers would benefit by hearing Dr. Ehrensaft in her own words. This radio broadcast can be heard by clicking below. 

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Diane Ehrensaft, Ph.D. is an associate professor of Pediatrics at the University of California San Francisco and a developmental and clinical psychologist in the San Francisco Bay Area, with a private practice in Oakland, California.  She is Director of Mental Health of the Child and Adolescent Gender Center and chief psychologist at the Child and Adolescent Gender Center Clinic at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital. She specializes in research, clinical work, and consultation related to gender-nonconforming children, lecturing, publishing, and serving as an expert witness on both topics nationally and internationally.

Dr. Ehrensaft is author of Gender Born, Gender Made; Mommies, Daddies, Donors, Surrogates; Building a Home Within (co-edited with Toni Heineman); Spoiling Childhood; Parenting Together; and the new release, The Gender Creative Child.  Dr. Ehrensaft serves on the Board of Directors of Gender Spectrum, a national organization addressing the needs of gender-expansive children and their families. 

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You can read other blogs by the LIAS project by going to: 

• Expanded Learning 360°/365 Project website 
• LIAS Blog written for the California AfterSchool Network

Understanding Gender Identity in Young People

Sam Piha

By Sam Piha

There is a growing awareness in our society that gender is more than the sex that is assigned at birth. In the popular media, we have been introduced to Caitlin Jenner and followed the challenges as portrayed in the Netflix TV series, Transparent. 

The issues of gender identity and children have been well chronicled on the Public Broadcasting NewsHour and its cousin, Frontline. These can be accessed by clicking on the images below.

Increasingly, schools are struggling in the courts to fully address the rights of transgender youth: how to address the needs to access restrooms and locker rooms that are based on gender and engage in activities in alignment with a youth’s affirmed gender. 

As gender identity is now being better understood, leaders of youth program leaders are urged to make themselves aware of this new knowledge. This new knowledge is especially important to ensure that youth program leaders provide a safe place for all youth. It is important to note that many of the solutions involve efforts to reduce gender bias and stereotyping – something that is good for all youth and their program leaders. 

Photo credit:
http://www.tolerance.org/gender-spectrum

As explained by Gender Spectrum, gender is not a binary concept with two rigidly fixed options. Instead, gender is a “multidimensional array of possibilities” comprised of one’s biology, gender expression, and gender identity. Then again, this concept is not new. Documented by countless historians and anthropologists, non- binary gender diversity exists all over the world.

However, society often views gender as binary. Our understanding of gender is influenced by upbringing, culture, peers, schools, community, media and religion and starts the minute we are born. Even toys, colors, and clothes are assigned a gender. As stated by Gender Spectrum, “through a combination of social conditioning and personal preference, by age three most children prefer activities and exhibit behaviors typically associated with their sex.”
We will expand on gender identity with several posts. We will begin with some important terminology. 

Gender Spectrum offers the following terminology:

• Biological/Anatomical Sex: The physical structure of one’s reproductive organs that is used to assign sex at birth. Given the potential variation in all of these, biological sex must be seen as a spectrum or range of possibilities rather than a binary set of two options.
• Gender Identity: One’s innermost concept of self as male or female, both, neither, or any and all—how individuals perceive themselves and what they call themselves. Individuals are conscious of this between the ages 18 months and 3 years. For some, their gender identity is different from their biological or assigned sex. Some of these individuals choose to socially, hormonally and/or surgically change their sex to more fully match their gender identity.
• Gender Expression: Refers to the ways in which people externally communicate their gender identity to others through behavior, clothing, haircut, voice, and other forms of presentation. Gender expression also works the other way as people assign gender to others based on their appearance, mannerisms, and other gendered characteristics. Sometimes, transgender people seek to match their physical expression with their gender identity, rather than their birth-assigned sex. Gender expression should not be viewed as an indication of sexual orientation.
• Gender Role: This is the set of roles, activities, expectations and behaviors assigned to females and males by society. Our culture recognizes two basic gender roles: Masculine (having the qualities attributed to males) and feminine (having the qualities attributed to females). People who step out of their socially assigned gender roles are sometimes referred to as transgender. Other cultures have three or more gender roles.

Photo Credit: http://www.theguardian.com/

• Transgender: It refers to an individual whose gender identity does not match their assigned birth gender. Being transgender does not imply any specific sexual orientation (attraction to people of a specific gender.) Therefore, transgender people may additionally identify with a variety of other sexual identities as well.
• Gender Fluidity: Gender fluidity conveys a wider, more flexible range of gender expression, with interests and behaviors that may even change from day to day. Gender fluid children do not feel confined by restrictive boundaries of stereotypical expectations of girls or boys. In other words, a child may feel they are a girl some days and a boy on others, or possibly feel that neither term describes them accurately.

Tolerance.org, expands gender terminology to include: 

• Genderqueer: A broad descriptor many people use to indicate a person that does not identify as either male or female.
• Preferred Personal Pronouns: In addition to the traditional pronouns (he/him, she/her, they), some people prefer to use gender-neutral pronouns, such as ne, ve, ze/zie and xe. If you don’t know a youth’s preferred personal pronoun, it’s always best to ask. [Increasingly, youth are requesting that “they” be used as their personal, singular gender-neutral pronoun.]

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You can read other blogs by the LIAS project by going to: 

• Expanded Learning 360°/365 Project website
• LIAS Blog Written for the California Afterschool Network