Glossary
Aromantic (“Aro”): A person who has little or no romantic attraction to anyone. This occurs on a spectrum.
Asexual (“Ace”): A person who has little or no sexual attraction to anyone. This occurs on a spectrum.
Bisexual: A person who is attracted to people of their own gender and genders different to their own. The degree of attraction may vary.
Brotherboy: Brotherboy is considered to be a culturally as well as a socially accepted term to describe Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander transgender people who identify as male (who were assigned female at birth).
Cisgender: A person whose gender is the same as the gender they were assigned at birth.
Gay: A person who identifies as a man who is attracted to men, or a person who identifies as a woman who is attracted to women.
Gender/gender identity: Gender is a social and cultural concept. It is about social and cultural identity, expression and experience as a man, woman or non-binary person. Gender identity is about who a person feels themself to be. Gender expression is the way a person expresses their gender; person's gender expression may also vary depending on the context, for instance expressing different genders at work and home. Gender experience describes a person’s alignment with the gender presumed for them at birth, i.e. a cis experience or a trans experience.
Intersex: Intersex people have innate sex characteristics that don’t fit medical and social norms for female or male bodies. This is also called 'variations of sex characteristics'. Intersex does not refer to a particular gender identity or sexual orientation; intersex people old enough to freely express an identity may be heterosexual or not, and cisgender or not.
Lesbian: A woman who is attracted to women. Some may also use the term Gay to describe themselves.
LGBTIQ+: Initialism for ‘Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer, Plus’. Other identities, such as Asexual, are covered by the + symbol.
LGBTQIASB+: adds ‘SB’ to represent ‘Sistergirl’ and ‘Brotherboy’. Two terms used by some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and which refer to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and men who are transgender.
Non-binary, nonbinary: A person whose gender does not fit within a binary of male and female gender identities. Some nonbinary people may label themselves as trans.
Pansexual: A person who is attracted to people regardless of their sex or gender.
Queer: A term used to describe a range of sexual orientations and gender identities. While this term has been reclaimed for some people, this term is not accepted by all and should not be used as a catch-all term. It should only be used by people wishing to identify as queer. This term should also not be used when referring to people with intersex variations.
Sexual orientation: An umbrella concept that encapsulates sexual identity (how a person thinks of their sexuality and the terms they identify with), attraction (romantic or sexual interest in another person), and behaviour (sexual behaviour). It is a subjective view of oneself and can change over the course of their lifetime and in different contexts.
Sistergirl: Sistergirl is considered to be a culturally as well as socially accepted term to describe Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander transgender people who identify as female (who were assigned male at birth).
Transgender, trans: A person whose gender is different to the gender that they were assigned at birth.