Names for gay people
Glossary of Terms: LGBTQ
Definitions were drafted in collaboration with other U.S.-based LGBTQ collective organizations and leaders. Watch acknowledgements section.
Additional terms and definitions about gender identity and gender statement, transgender people, and nonbinary people are available in the Transgender Glossary.
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*NOTE: Ask people what terms they operate to describe their sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression before assigning them a label. Outside of acronyms, these terms should only be capitalized when used at the beginning of a sentence.
LGBTQ
Acronym for sapphic, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer. The Q generally stands for queer when LGBTQ organizations, leaders, and media use the acronym. In settings offering assist for youth, it can also stand for questioning. LGBT and LGBTQ+ are also used, with the + added in recognition of all non-straight, non-cisgender identities. (See Transgender Glossary ) Both are acceptable, as are other versions of this acronym. The term “gay community” should be avoided, as it does not accuratel
LGBTQIA Resource Center Glossary
GLOSSARY
The terms and definitions below are always evolving, modifying and often signify different things to different people. They are provided below as a starting point for discussion and understanding. This Glossary has been collectively built and created by the staff members of the LGBTQIA Resource Center since the early 2000s.
These are not universal definitions. This glossary is provided to facilitate give others a more thorough but not entirely comprehensive understanding of the significance of these terms. You may even consider asking someone what they mean when they use a legal title, especially when they use it to describe their self. Ultimately it is most important that each individual explain themselves for themselves and therefore also define a designation for themselves.
“If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive.” -Audre Lorde
This glossary contains terms, such as ableism and disability, that may not be considered directly related to identities of sexuality or gender. These terms are crucial to acknowledge as part of our mission to disagree all forms of oppress
LGBTQIA+ Slurs and Slang
bog queen
Synonyms: Bathsheba (composition between bathroom and Sheba to create a name reminiscent of the Queen of Sheba), Ghost (50s, ghost, because they wander the corridors of the bathroom).
Homosexual Terms in 18th-century Dictionaries
NOTE: In the following selection of definitions from dictionaries published during the eighteenth century, the most common words relating to homosexuality are "sodomy" and "buggery", which of course is no surprise. I consider we can safely assume that "buggery" is widely understood as meaning anal intercourse between males, but the synonyms "sodomy" seems to have a rather broader meaning, i.e. sex of any sort between males. Indeed, in Cocker's English dictionary of 1704 sodomy is defined simply as "male venery", which is really as abstract as the modern synonym "male homosexuality". Incidentally, the word "catamite" is sometimes just a synonym for "sodomite", and was not always restricted to one who submits to sodomy. There are also some other surprises. For example, the synonyms "molly" appeared in a Swedish/English dictionary in 1762, where it is simply defined as a sodomite, a buggerer, without effeminate connotations. "Molly" also appeared in a French/English dictionary in 1767, as well as in several slang (or "cant") dictionaries, along with other slang terms such as "madge". It is also engaging to see the less familiar ter