Glossary
Unsure of a term? No worries, we've got you covered.
These are words you might run into around the site, or anywhere else in the queer community.
Know of anything we're missing? Drop us a line
— tell us the term and what it means, and a moderator will add it.
A
- Ace
- A person who is asexual.
- Achillean
- Relating to Achilles, often used in a sexual context, referring to a man or masculine person who is attracted to another man or masculine person.
- Agender
- A person who does not identify with any gender.
- Ally
- A person who supports the LGBTQ+ community.
- Androgynous
- Having characteristics of both masculine and feminine genders.
- Androsexual
- Attracted to men or masculine individuals.
- Aro
- A person who is aromantic, or has no romantic attraction.
B
- Beard
- A person who is used, knowingly or unknowingly, to conceal another's sexual orientation.
- Bigender
- A person who identifies with two distinct genders.
- Bisexual
- Attracted to both one's own gender and those not of their gender.
- Bottom
- A person who takes the receptive role in a sexual relationship.
- Bury your gays
- A trope in which LGBTQ+ characters are disproportionately killed off in media.
C
- Camp
- A knowing, exaggerated style long associated with queer performance. Where a work could not say anything plainly, camp was often the only place its queerness was allowed to show.
- Closeted
- A person who has not publicly stated their sexual orientation or gender identity as anything other than the cis heterosexual norm.
- Conversion therapy
- A discredited practice that attempts to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity.
D
- Drag
- A performance art in which a person dresses in clothing and makeup that exaggerates a particular gender identity, often not their own, for entertainment purposes.
F
- Force femme
- A character who is forced to adopt a more feminine appearance or behavior.
G
- Gay awakening
- The process of coming to terms with one's sexual orientation.
- Gay bashing
- The act of assaulting gay people due to their sexual orientation.
- Gender fluid
- A person whose gender identity changes over time.
H
- Hays Code
- The Motion Picture Production Code, enforced on Hollywood from 1934 to 1968, which barred any depiction of “sex perversion” — meaning anything queer — outright. Comparable rules governed comics, the British stage and much of publishing, and are the reason so much queer content of the period survives only as subtext.
I
- Intersex
- A person born with physical sex characteristics that don't fit typical male or female patterns.
L
- Lesbian
- A woman who is attracted to other women.
N
- Non-binary
- A person who does not identify with the traditional binary categories of man or woman.
O
- Orders
- A topical form of progesterone, typically made by trans women for their own use.
- Outing
- The act of revealing someone's sexual orientation or gender identity without their consent.
P
- Pansexual
- Attracted to people regardless of their gender identity.
Q
- Queer
- An umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender.
- Queer-coded
- Written or performed so that a character reads as queer — through mannerism, styling, casting or framing — without the work ever saying so.
- Queer-coded villain
- An antagonist in media who is portrayed with traits or behaviors that are stereotypically associated with LGBTQ+ people, often used to imply that being queer is inherently evil or immoral.
- Queerbait
- The practice of including LGBTQ+ characters or hinting at queer themes in media primarily for the purpose of attracting progressive audiences, rather than for authentic representation.
R
- Romantic friendship
- An intense, avowed devotion between two people of the same sex, a recognised social form in the 18th and 19th centuries. Period writing uses it both for friendships that were exactly that and for relationships that had no other name available.
S
- Sapphic
- Named for the Greek poet Sappho, often used to describe women who are attracted to other women.
- Subtext
- What a work implies without stating. In queer reading it usually means a relationship or an identity the makers wrote in through framing, styling and performance because saying it outright was not permitted.
- Suggestions
- A type of topical estrogen, typically made by trans women for their own use.
T
- Top
- A person who takes the dominant role in a sexual relationship.
- Transgender
- A person whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.
- Transphobia
- Prejudice against or discrimination toward transgender people.