ANDROGYNY: An androgynous person is an individual who has a high degree of both feminine and masculine traits.

(GENDER) BINARISM: A social construct that dichotomously categorises people's activities, behaviours, emotions and anatomy into two mutually exclusive genders: male and female.

CIS/CISEXUAL/CISGENDER: A person who identifies with the gender assigned to them at birth based on their biological characteristics. In other words, it is a term used to classify people whose gender identity and expression align with their biological sex. It is used in contrast to trans, transsexual and transgender.

GENDER EXPRESSION: This refers to how a person expresses their gender and is based on traditional roles attributed to being a man or a woman. It includes the way we express ourselves, the way we dress and the way we are expected to behave according to societal norms. Gender expression can be feminine, masculine, or androgynous in cases where elements of both are combined.

GENDER: A set of culturally derived characteristics that shape patterns of behaviour and identity, forming the basis for the social distinction between men and women. It is neither static nor innate but is a socio-cultural construct that has varied and may vary over time. It should not be confused with sex, which refers to biological or physical characteristics. Although the male gender is socially associated with the male sex and the female gender with the female sex, they are not equivalent concepts.

GENDER IDENTITY: The self-perception of one’s gender, i.e. the gender with which we identify ourselves, typically from a very early age. It does not necessarily align with a person's biological sex, nor does it have anything to do with affective or sexual orientation. There are identities that go beyond the binary system, leading to categories such as bigender, demigender, agender, gender fluid, etc., which we can group under the term “non-binary”.

SEXUAL IDENTITY: This is defined by the set of characteristics related to sexuality and is part of a person's identity. Although sometimes used as a synonym for “gender identity”, sexual identity is a broader concept that encompasses other elements, such as gender identity itself, biological sex, sexual orientation, gender expression and sexual behaviour.

INTERSEX/INTERSEXUAL: A person who is born with sexual characteristics that do not fit typical definitions of male or female reproductive or sexual anatomy.

LGBT/LGBTI/LGBTI+: LGBT is the acronym used for “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender”. In keeping with the inclusive nature of this terminology, it is used as an umbrella term to encompass different sex/gender expressions and identities. Additional letters are often included, such as I for Intersex or Intersexual, Q for Queer or A for Asexuality. The + (plus) symbol is also often included to express “and others”, to reflect the full spectrum of sexual orientations and identities.

NON-BINARY/NON-BINARY GENDER/NON-BINARY IDENTITY: This applies to people and identities that are outside the gender binary, meaning those who do not perceive themselves entirely as male or female. They may identify with a third gender, none or even fluctuate between several. Non-binary identities often fall under trans or queer identities (sometimes referred to as “genderqueer”), although some non-binary people prefer not to identify with any other category. Non-binary identities, expressions or behaviours are also very diverse and include agender, bigender, gender fluid, gender-neutral, non-normative identities, etc.

SEXUAL ORIENTATION/SEX-AFFECTIVE/AFFECTIVE-SEXUAL: This refers to each person's tendency to feel an affective, erotic and sexual attraction towards another person or people. Orientation is one of the components of sexual identity. Heterosexual people are attracted to the opposite sex, homosexual people to the same sex and bisexual people to both. Beyond the binary model, there are other categories of orientation, such as pansexual, omnisexual, polysexual, etc.

QUEER: This is a complex term with different meanings and is difficult to define. In English, it originally meant odd, strange and unusual and was used as an insult to refer to homosexuals in a derogatory way. As has happened with other terms, activism has redefined it, reclaiming it as an empowering concept.

TRANS*: This is a category that forms part of gender identity. It refers to people whose sex assigned at birth – according to their biological characteristics – does not align with their gender identity. Within the trans* community, there are those who choose to undergo a hormonal transition process, those who opt for partial or complete reassignment and those who focus solely on changing their gender expression.
In addition, some non-binary people also define themselves as trans because they do not identify with a specific gender, which therefore differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. Being trans does not imply having any specific sexual and affective orientation. In other words, a trans person can be gay, lesbian, bisexual, heterosexual or asexual.