• Lesbian: refers to a woman who is predominantly sexually and/or romantically attracted to other women. “Lesbian” can include nonbinary folks. Some women prefer the term “gay”.
• Gay: refers to a man who is predominantly sexually and/or romantically attracted to other men. “Gay” can also refer to any person who is predominantly sexually and/or romantically attracted to people of the same gender.
• Bisexual: refers to a person who is sexually and/or romantically attracted to both people of the same gender and people of different genders. “Bisexual” can also be defined as attraction to more than one gender.
• Transgender: refers to any person whose gender identity does not correspond to the sex they were assigned at birth. “Transgender” can be used as an umbrella term which includes Nonbinary people and does not require or imply social or physical transition.
• Queer: refers to people of any sexual orientation, any gender identity, or any gender expression that exists outside of cisgender, heterosexual, and allosexual identities. Some people view this as a reclaimed term of empowerment, and some people view this term as a slur.
• Questioning: refers to a person who is still exploring or unsure about their sexual orientation and/or gender identity and is in the process of coming to know themselves.
• Intersex: refers to a person whose anatomy, genetics, and/or hormones vary from that of ‘male’ or ‘female’
• Asexual: refers to a person with low or absent sexual or physical attraction to any gender. They may still desire romantic connection.
• Aromantic: refers to a person with low or absent romantic attraction to any gender. They may still desire sexual or physical connection.
• Plus: refers to people who are not cisgender, allosexual, and heterosexual, but whose identity labels are not explicitly named in the acronym, such as “Two-Spirit”, “Demisexual”, “Pansexual”, etc. “Plus” is meant to include any people who fall under the umbrella of sexual orientation, romantic orientation, gender identity, and/or gender expression minorities who do not feel comfortable or covered by the above defined words.

Absolutely not! Quite the opposite. Conversion therapy is an attempt to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity, whereas Kaleidoscope promotes accepting and affirming who a person is to improve their well-being. Conversion therapy is an illegal practice in the state of California as research indicates that it causes harm, including increasing suicidal thoughts and attempts.

Because we live in a society that centers heterosexual and cisgender experiences, some people incorrectly believe that being LGBTQ+ is a choice. However, research shows that it is not a choice, in the same way that being heterosexual or cisgender is not a choice. It’s more a matter of self-acceptance and then the ability to live as oneself in a safe and affirming environment.

Transgender people are people whose gender identity is different from the gender they were thought to be at birth, based upon the doctor’s assessment of their genitalia. Most people never think about their gender identity because it aligns with their sex assigned at birth i.e. cisgender. However, there are around 1.4 million transgender adults in the USA. For example, a woman who uses she/her pronouns and was assigned male at birth may use the term “transgender” to describe herself. This is just one example of being transgender as there are many gender identities and ways to express them. Some transgender people choose to make social or physical changes, and some do not. A transgender man is a man. A transgender woman is a woman. People who are nonbinary, transmasculine, transfeminine, or agender may also describe themselves as transgender.

Gender identity and sexual orientation are two independent things. Sexual orientation refers to who a person is physically or romantically attracted to. Gender identity refers to a person’s internal sense of being a man, woman, both, another gender, or no gender at all. Gender Identity does not necessarily correlate with sex assigned at birth and is not externally visible. Both transgender and cisgender people can be any sexual orientation.

Research shows that youth who are rejected by their families due to their sexual orientation or gender expression have much lower self-esteem and are at higher risk for mental health problems than youth who are accepted by their families and supported in their sexual orientation and gender expression. Young adults whose families supported their sexual orientation and gender expression as youth were much less likely to be depressed, abuse drugs, to engage in self-harm or to think about or attempt to take their own lives.