Queer Glossary

Terms are from the transgender advocates' flyer given at UC LGBT Conference, Winter 1997, UC Irvine, and some of my own additional ones (bisexual, gay, heterosexual, homosexual, lesbian, queer).

Bisexual: Term describing a person whose sexual attraction are to both males and females.
Crossdresser: One who wears the clothing and cultivates the appearance of the other sex. Males who crossdress for erotic reasons, and who are sometimes referred to as Transvestites. [This is different from a "drag queen," who is a performer who crossdresses (female/male impersonator). In 1994, crossdressing under the label "Gender Identity Disorder" was taken off the DSM-IV, The American Psychological Association’s (APA’s) Diagnostic Statistical Manual-IV (DSM-IV).]
FTM: Common abbreviation denoting a female-to-male transsexual.
Gay: Term referring to male homosexual although some people also use it as a non-gender specific term to describe anyone homosexual.
Gender: A psychological construct which changes over time and is distinct from sex, which is an individual’s biological or genetic state of maleness or femaleness.
Gender Identity: One’s own personal sense of being a man or woman, boy or girl, or "other" gender.
Gender Identity Disorder: A medical term used in the D.S.M.-IV: "There must be evidence of a strong and persistent cross-gender identification, which is the desire to be, or the insistence that one is of the other sex." Previously described under the term gender dysphoria.
Heterosexual: A term used to describe a person who is sexually attracted to the opposite-sex.
Homosexual: A term used to describe a person who is sexually attracted to the same-sex, i.e., gay men and lesbians.
Lesbian: Term referring to female homosexual. Popular during the 70s and used widely by radical feminists who are "political lesbians".
MTF: Common abbreviation denoting a male-to-female transsexual.
Queer: A generic term used by Queer theorists to describe all that do not conform to the patriarchal gender-sex binary system. This includes FTM who identifies as a straight man. Also used as a shortcut for "gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender".
Sex: The biological or genetic state of maleness or femaleness determined at birth, as opposed to gender, and which is assigned primarily on the visual presence or absence of genitalia.
Sex Reassignment: Modifying the body to make it as much as possible like that of the other sex.
Sex Reassignment, Hormonal: Exogenous administration of estrogens (for male-to-female) or androgens (for female-to-male) to effect the development of secondary sex characteristics of the other sex.
Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS): Permanent procedures to alter the body to resemble the other sex.
Sexual Orientation: Sexual preference for emotive/erotic partners of the same, opposite, or either sex. Orientations are typically described as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or asexual. [In 1973, the term "homosexual" was taken out of the DSM-IV after much protests and in-workings of activists.]
Standards of Care (HBIGDA): A set of minimum guidelines formulated by the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association, Inc., designed to safeguard both transsexual persons and those who provide professional (medical, pyschotherapeutic) services to transsexuals.
Transgender: Crossing over or transcending the common social assignment of gender at birth to incorporate one or more aspects, traits, or characteristics of the other sex. [Virginia Prince originally used this term as a political concept to frame the diversity of gender expression.]
Transgenderist: One who incorporates aspects, traits, or characteristics of both sexes.
Transsexual: An individual who experiences intense, persistent discomfort and feelings of inappropriateness with the sex assignment made at birth, and who actively seeks to change or has changed his/her body through hormonal reassignment and/or various surgical procedures.