Disclaimer: Language has power and is constantly changing. The terms used in this site and listed in the glossary are designed to empower you with language that will help you better understand discussions of gender and sexuality. Many of the terms are self-identifications; they mean something different to each person who identifies with the term. For the most part, terms are based in Western understandings of gender and sexuality so they may not speak to the experiences of those from many cultures.
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2S/LGBTQIA+: an acronym used to denote identities of individuals and groups. It is a Western placeholder that stands for Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/transsexual, queer/questioning, intersex, asexual/allies, and all other sexual and gender identities. The understanding behind the acronym is that sexuality and gender are fluid and that language is contextual and evolving. The intent of the acronym is to be inclusive while recognizing that it is not perfect.
Asexual: a person who does not experience or experiences little sexual attraction or desire. This person may or may not have spiritual and emotional attraction to others.
Assigned sex at birth: refers to the male or female designation that doctors ascribe to newborns based on inspection of the external genitalia. The use of the phrase “birth sex” erases the experience of intersex people and oversimplifies the realities of biological sex.
Aversion therapy: Under medical supervision, queer and trans people were exposed to painful sensations like electrical shocks or given chemicals that made them vomit. This was done in hopes of forming a negative association with a person’s sexual or gender identity or expression, in order to “correct” it.
Cisgender: people whose gender identity matches with what is socially expected based on their sex assigned at birth. (e.g. a person who was assigned male at birth and identifies as a man)
Cis-heteronormative: Refers to cissexism and heterosexism, which assume cisgender gender identities and heterosexual sexual orientations are more natural and legitimate than those of 2S/LGBTQIA+ people.
Cisnormative: The assumption that a person’s gender identity matches their biological sex.
Conversion “therapy” / Conversion practices: Conversion “therapy” is a term that has been used to describe a poorly defined set of psychological, behavioural, physical, and faith-based practices, treatments, or services attempt to change or suppress a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. These practices are systematic attempts to convert people into what is considered normative (heterosexual and cis-gender). They have ranged from physically invasive procedures, such as lobotomies and electroshock therapy, psychological interventions, such as talk “therapies,” to religious programs or counselling. It is a harmful practice that has been rejected by mainstream medical and mental health organizations for decades and is not considered a reputable “therapy”. We will refer to these harmful efforts as conversion practices and use the term “therapy” when referring to the federal law.
Gender: a social construct that differs from culture to culture. The World Health Organization defines gender as referring to the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women (such as certain roles, as well as appearance).
Gender affirming care: gender-affirmative approaches follow the client’s lead when it comes to gender, while gender-exploratory therapy is a form of conversion therapy that encourages youth to explore the “pathological roots” of their trans identity or gender dysphoria with the goal of identifying why they have gender dysphoria and/or believe themselves to be trans.
Gender expansive, genderqueer, gender nonconforming: Someone whose gender identity and/or gender expression expands beyond, actively resists, and/or does not conform to the current cultural or social expectations of gender, particularly in relation to male or female. These can be umbrella terms for many identities including, but not limited to: bigender, genderfluid, genderqueer, or pangender.
Gender expression: Refers to the spectrum of ways that people choose to express their gender identity publicly, such as through their name, pronoun, clothes, voice, hair, make up, etc. People who express their gender in ways that do not conform to social or cultural expectations about gender may be subjected to bullying, discrimination, and harassment. Anyone of any gender can be gender nonconforming.
Gender identity: A self-determined identity that reflects an individual’s internal and deeply felt sense of being a man or woman, both, or neither. A person’s gender identity may or may not align with the gender typically associated with their birth sex (sex assigned at birth). A person’s gender identity is fundamentally different from and not related to their sexual orientation.
Heteronormative: The assumption that heterosexuality is the only normal or natural way to express sexuality.
Heterosexual: refers to someone whose sexual orientation is being attracted to a different sex and/or gender. Also referred to as “straight.”
Homosexual: A person whose primary sexual and romantic attraction is to people of the same gender. Also referred to as gay, lesbian, or queer.
Intersex: Intersex people are born with physical or biological sex characteristics (including sexual anatomy, reproductive organs, and/or chromosomal patterns) that do not fit the binary definitions of male or female sex. These characteristics may be apparent at birth or emerge later in life, often at puberty.
Minority Stress: Minority stress is the relationship between minority and dominant values and resultant conflict with the social environment experienced by minority group members. Stigma, prejudice, and discrimination experienced by queer, trans, and Two-Spirit people creates a hostile and stressful social environment that accrues over time, resulting in long-term health deficits.
Multiple Minority Stress: Queer, trans, and Two-Spirit individuals who are also racial/ethnic minorities (BIPOC) or who live with disabilities are a multiply marginalized population subject to oppression and aggressions associated with racism, ableism, heterosexism, and/or cissexism.
Non-binary: an umbrella term that reflects a variety of gender identities that do not fit into the categories of man or woman or who do not identify with any gender at all. Includes genderqueer, pangender, bigender, genderfluid, or agender (gender free).
Religious trauma: Mental health practitioners have just recently begun the work of cataloguing and defining religious trauma. The term was defined in 2020 by the Global Centre for Religious Research: “Religious Trauma results from an event, series of events, relationships, or circumstances within or connected to religious beliefs, practices, or structures that is experienced by an individual as overwhelming or disruptive and has lasting adverse effects on a person’s physical, mental, social, emotional, or spiritual well-being.”
Sex: Sex refers to a person’s biological and physiological characteristics, usually as assessed at birth. This includes a person’s external sex organs, sex chromosomes, and internal reproductive structures.
Sexual identity: is how one thinks of oneself in relation to one’s sexuality. As such, it encompasses many components, including the labels you might use to let others know who you are as a sexual being (lesbian, gay, queer, straight, bi, ace, or any number of other sexual identities) and how you identify your gender (trans, non-binary, man, woman, queer, or any number of other gender identities).
Sexual orientation: refers to a person’s emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and sexual attraction to others (heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, pansexual, queer, asexual, or any number of other sexual orientations).
SOGIE: an abbreviation combining Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression that has become one of the main reference terms to describe the LGBT (or lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community. It has been introduced in legal doctrines and United Nations documents, and is becoming popular on social media. Its usefulness lies in its inclusiveness: the term “LGBT” is specific to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, but “SOGIE” refers to characteristics common to all human beings because we all have a sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression.
SOGIECE: SOGIECE is an acronym that stands for sexual orientation and gender identity or expression change efforts. SOGIECE is used as an umbrella term to encompass a wide range of practices—including conversion practices—which are experienced as subtle or blatant practices, pressures, or messages, that aim to change, deny, suppress, or lead a person to doubt their sexual orientation, gender identity, and/or expression. SOGIECE includes other ways and situations in which 2S/LGBTQIA+ people experience harmful pressure to suppress their authentic selves, such as persistent “nudges” expressed by others, where they are encouraged to try something cis-heteronormative, like dating someone of the opposite gender or wearing clothes typically attributed to a gender aligned with that assigned at birth.
Survivor: We use this term to refer to someone who has experienced the harm or trauma of conversion practices or SOGIECE, and is working on recovering. Some people identify as a victim, while others prefer the term survivor. If you have survived trauma (in any form), you are literally a survivor of trauma. It’s not all you are, but it’s a part of you.
Trans/transgender: an umbrella term for people whose gender identity does not match what is socially expected based on their assigned sex at birth. Trans includes people of a wide variety of gender identities. Trans people may identify with any sexual orientation.
Transition: Gender transition is the process of changing one’s gender presentation or sex characteristics to accord with one’s internal sense of gender identity — the idea of what it means to be a man or a woman, or to be non-binary or genderqueer. May include one or more of the following: social transition such as new names, pronouns, and clothing, legal transition such as updating the sex marker on their birth certificate and other government issued identification, and medical transition such as hormone therapy or surgery.
Trauma: The lasting emotional response that often results from living through a traumatic event. People with trauma can often feel shame, helplessness, powerlessness, and intense fear long after the traumatic event has occurred. Experiencing a single traumatic event is most likely to lead to simple PTSD. Complex PTSD tends to result from long-term, chronic trauma and can affect a person’s ability to form healthy, trusting relationships. Complex trauma in children is often referred to as “developmental trauma.”
Two- Spirit: an umbrella term that embraces the Indigenous traditions of honouring sexual and gender diversity within a community. Being Two-Spirit is not about sexuality or even gender presentation, but is about a person’s spirit. There is no single definition of Two-Spirit, allowing each Indigenous person to define, experience, and express it within their own context (i.e. nation, language, and culture).