Terminology used to describe sexual and gender identities has changed over time to reflect developments in society. Researching LGBTQ+ history can be challenging, considering that much of the terminology we use today would not have been available to people in the past. The following list is non-exhaustive, but contains definitions and dates that may be helpful when conducting research into LGBTQ+ history and experience:
Cisgender: An adjective for people whose gender identity corresponds with their sex assigned at birth. This includes “man” and “woman” as gender identities. Coined in 1994, the term began to be used more frequently from around 2006. (Rioux, et al., 2022)
Deadnaming: Calling someone by their birth name after they have changed their name. This term is often associated with trans people who have changed their name as part of their transition. The term was popularised in the early 2010s. (Stonewall, n.d.)
Gender: Refers to the characteristics of women, men, girls and boys that are socially constructed. This includes norms, behaviours and roles associated with being a woman, man, girl or boy, as well as relationships with each other. As a social construct, gender varies from society to society and can change over time (World Health Organization, 2019)
Genderqueer: People who challenge binary social constructions of gender sometimes self-identify as genderqueer. The term has been in use since the 1980s, and is generally seen as the precursor to the term non-binary. (Shaw and Lee, 2014)
Intersex: Umbrella term used to describe people who are born with variations of sex characteristics, which do not always fit society’s perception of male or female bodies. Although coined in 1917, the term did not enter popular awareness until the 1990s. (Equality Network, 2013; Goldberg, 2016)
LGBTQIA+: An acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex and asexual. LGBT began to replace the term gay in reference to the broader community beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s and has expanded to include other queer identities. (GLAAD, 2016; Blakemore, 2021)
Non-Binary: An umbrella term used to describe people who experience their gender identity and/or gender expression as falling outside the binary gender categories of 'man' and 'woman.' Some non-binary people identify as transgender, while others do not. The term originates from the early 2000s (GLAAD, 2016; Monro, 2019).
Pronouns: The pronouns that one feels most comfortable being used when spoken or referred to. Commonly, these are he/his, she/her or they/them. However, some people choose to adopt neopronouns that they feel reflect their gender identity more accurately than conventional pronouns. Examples of this might include: ‘ze’, ‘per,’ or ‘hir’ (Miller, 2016)
Queer: An umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or are not cisgender. In use since the 1910s, it was once a derogatory term. It was reclaimed by activists and queer theorists in the 1980s as a more inclusive way to describe a variety of identities. (Myers, 2013)
Trans: An umbrella term to describe people whose gender is not the same as, or does not sit comfortably with, the sex they were assigned at birth. Trans people may describe themselves using one or more of a wide variety of terms, including (but not limited to) transgender, transsexual, genderqueer, genderfluid, non-binary, genderless, agender, nongender, third gender, trans man/woman or trans masculine/feminine. (Stonewall, n.d.)
Transgender: An adjective to describe people whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. Although transgender people have existed throughout history, the term only came into use in the 1970s. (Whittle, 1996; GLAAD, 2016)
Further terms and definitions can be found on Stonewall's Glossary of LGBTQ+ Terms.
