Allyship

An umbrella term, like LGBTTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, takatāpui, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and more), describing people of diverse sexualities, genders, and variations of sex characteristics. This term is sometimes used in place of LGBTTQIA+ in Aotearoa New Zealand.

A term referring to the gender or genders that a person is attracted to. A person's sexuality may also describe the type of or amount of attraction that that person feels. While specific sexuality-related terms are often dependent on the gender of the people involved, sexuality and gender are different concepts.

How a person expresses their sense of gender through their clothes, mannerisms, voice, pronouns, and other forms of expression. A person’s gender expression does not always align with their gender identity; sometimes as a part of self-expression, and sometimes out of safety or protection from being discriminated against.

How a person understands and describes their inner self, their experience, and their role within their social and cultural context. We are assumed to be a particular sex/gender at birth based on our sex characteristics, however not everyone’s sex or gender is the same as that which was assumed. Gender is understood differently across cultures and throughout history.

Someone whose gender is not the same as what was assumed at birth (e.g., a person who was assumed to be a boy at birth but is actually a girl, non-binary, etc.). This term includes people with binary (trans man, trans woman) and non-binary (genderfluid, genderqueer, etc.) genders. Not all people with this experience will use the term ‘trans’ to describe themself.

An umbrella term used to collectively describe a diverse range of genders other than cisgender, including transgender, non-binary, and culturally specific genders. 

A term used to describe people whose gender is outside of the 'binary' of boy/man or girl/woman. Non-binary can be used to describe a person's gender, or as an umbrella term for a number of genders that are beyond the binary. Since non-binary people have a gender that is different from what was assumed at birth, they fall under the umbrella of ‘trans’, though not every non-binary person will use this term to describe themself. 

Describes someone whose gender is the same as the gender that was assumed for them when they were born (i.e. not trans or non-binary).

A term used to describe a person born with an innate variation of sex characteristics such as chromosomes, reproductive anatomy, genitals, and hormones. People are born with these variations, or they may develop during puberty. There are 40 known intersex variations. Though the word intersex describes a range of natural body variations, many people will not identify with, or know, this term or related terms.

A person who is born without variations of sex characteristics, whose body aligns with normative medical understandings of a male or female body (ie. not intersex).