Glossary of Key Terms

Bisexual: a person who is attracted to both sexes.

Gay: a synonym for homosexual.

Gender identity: a person's internal, deeply felt sense of being male or female, or something other than or in between male and female.

Heterosexual: a person attracted primarily to people of the opposite sex.

Homosexual: a person attracted primarily to people of the same sex.

Lesbian: a female attracted primarily to other females.

LGBT: lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender; an inclusive term for groups and identities sometimes also associated together as "sexual minorities."

Men who have sex with men: men who engage in sexual behavior with other men, but do not necessarily identify as "gay," "homosexual" or "bisexual."

Sexual orientation: the way in which a person's sexual and emotional desires are directed. The term categorizes according to the sex of the object of desire-that is, it describes whether a person is attracted primarily toward people of the same or opposite sex, or to both.

Transgender: One whose inner gender identity differs from the physical characteristics of his/her body at birth.Female-to-male transgender people were born with female bodies but have a predominantly male gender identity; male-to-female transgender people were born with male bodies but have a predominantly female gender identity.

Women who have sex with women: women who engage in sexual behavior with other women, but do not necessarily identify as "gay," "homosexual," "lesbian" or "bisexual."