Difference between gay and transgender

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Definitions

Sexual orientation

An essential or immutable enduring emotional, romantic or sexual attraction to other people. Note: an individual’s sexual orientation is independent of their gender identity.

Gender identity

One's innermost concept of self as male, female, a blend of both or neither – how individuals perceive themselves and what they contact themselves. One's gender identity can be the same or different from their sex assigned at birth.

Gender expression

External appearance of one's gender identity, usually expressed through behavior, clothing, body characteristics or voice, and which may or may not conform to socially defined behaviors and characteristics typically associated with existence either masculine or feminine.

Transgender

An umbrella designation for people whose gender identity and/or expression is diverse from cultural expectations based on the sex they were assigned at birth. Being transgender does not imply any specific sexual orientation. Therefore, transgender people may identify as straight, gay, sapphic, bisexual, etc.

Gender transition

The process by which some people struggle to more closely

Glossary of Terms

Many Americans refrain from talking about sexual orientation and gender identity or expression because it feels taboo, or because they’re afraid of saying the wrong thing. 

This glossary was written to help offer people the words and meanings to help make conversations easier and more comfortable. LGBTQ+ people use a variety of terms to identify themselves, not all of which are included in this glossary. Always listen for and respect a person’s self identified terminology.

Ally | A phrase used to describe someone who is actively supportive of Queer people. It encompasses straight and cisgender allies, as well as those within the LGBTQ+ society who support each other (e.g., a lesbian who is an ally to the bisexual community).

Asexual | Often called “ace” for short, asexual refers to a complete or partial lack of sexual attraction or lack of interest in sexual activity with others. Asexuality exists on a spectrum, and asexual people may experience no, little or conditional sexual attraction.

Biphobia | The dread and hatred of, or discomfort with, people who love and are sexually attracted to more than one gender.

Bisexual |

Nope!

It’s easy to receive this confused, particularly because T is included in the LGBTQ+ acronym (T standing for “Transgender”). The key is to remember that transgender is referring to someone’s gender identity and not their sexuality orientation. Transgender people can be gay, vertical, pansexual, queer, asexual, or any other sexual orientation (just like cisgender people!).

Recent FAQs

All FAQs

What about advanced workshops? Secure Zone 201 perhaps?

Our Foundational Curriculum is a designed to create a Reliable Zone 101 overview workshop. We praise this workshop for all audiences – gay, straight, lgbtq+, allied, and anywhere in between (or outside) those categories. While some of it may be old information for some, we feel that everyone, no matter their learning level, will gain something out of the experience.

We perform have exercises that can be used for more advanced/specific workshops. Just verify out the search activities tab and search under the “201” levels for more advanced activities!

I have an outing I think you should add to the site. Undertake you want to see it?

Yes! One of our goals for this undertaking is to spin it into the go-to resou

Up until 2015, I’d never met a transgender person. Most of my queer friends hadn’t either, except for some who encountered drag artists in pubs. I’m unsure whether this is indicative of the larger gay community but if so, maybe it’s because whilst the male lover and trans community are grouped together under the LGBT framework, their differences sometimes outnumber their similarities. The former is about sexuality and the latter is about gender, with each sharing different nuances, history and direction. I discovered these facts whilst writing the book and my motive for writing lay sorely with my curiosity as to why a person would explore to change their gender.

Trans Voices examines gender dysphoria by looking at the lives of ordinary people who reported having incongruence between their brains and physical bodies from an early age, before deciding the only way to release this mental anguish was to transition to the opposite gender. Male lover people do not possess to endure these difficulties, which entail lifelong hormone treatment and sometimes multiple surgeries to bring the new gender into physical reassignment. I’m not saying gay people don’t tackle rejection and homophobia in socie