By Nadira Jamerson
Our Black LGBTQ+ friends, family, neighbors, and colleagues need us to show up, listen, and make sure we’re not adding to the harm they so often experience when they’re out in the world. One way to do that is by using correct terminology.
Doing so acknowledges the identities and experiences of LGBTQ+ folks, especially in a world that often gets the correct words or phrases wrong, or ignores them altogether.
This is about more than words — it’s about respect. The way we talk about people shapes how we see them, and getting the language right means creating spaces where folks feel seen, safe, loved, and understood. This isn’t a comprehensive list, but following are some essential terms you need to know:
Bisexual: Sexually or romantically attracted to both men and women, or to more than one sex or gender.
Chosen family: A community of non-biological, kinship bonds that provide mutual support and love that is crucial for many LGBTQ+ folks.
Gender: A person’s internal experience of being a man, a woman, a nonbinary person, or otherwise.
Gender-fluid: A person whose relationship to the concept of gender identity and gender expression is adaptable. They can present or identify as one gender, multiple genders, or no gender.
LGBTQ+: An acronym that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer, with a plus sign to represent the diversity of gender identities and sexual orientations.
Non-binary: An umbrella term to describe people who experience their gender identity and/or expression outside of the man/woman binary construct. It includes folks who are genderfluid, genderqueer, polygender, bigender, demigender, and agender, among others.
Queer: An umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or are not cisgender. It allows for a more fluid expression of gender as well as romantic and sexual attraction
Transgender: People whose gender identity differs from the sex assigned to them at birth
Transmascline: A term that describes people who identify with masculinity, but whose gender identity or expression may not be strictly male.
Transfeminine: A term that describes people who identify with femininity, but whose gender identity or expression may not be strictly female.
Polyamorous: A practice where people have multiple romantic or sexual relationships at the same time, with the consent of all partners involved.
This editorial was originally published in Word In Black.
