Lgbt and more
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 designation used to describe someone who is actively supportive of Homosexual 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
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Care Before Crisis
All of our support volunteers identify as part of the LGBTQIA+ family, and are here to help the entire group, by providing free & confidential peer-support, information, and local resources through national hotlines and online programs.
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LGBTQ Rights
The ACLU has a long history of defending the LGBTQ community. We brought our first LGBTQ rights case in Founded in , the Jon L. Stryker and Slobodan Randjelović LGBTQ & HIV Project brings more LGBTQ rights cases and activism initiatives than any other national organization does and has been counsel in seven of the nine LGBTQ rights cases that the U.S. Supreme Court has decided. With our reach into the courts and legislatures of every state, there is no other organization that can match our record of making progress both in the courts of statute and in the court of public opinion.
The ACLU’s current priorities are to end discrimination, harassment and violence toward transgender people, to close gaps in our federal and articulate civil rights laws, to prevent protections against discrimination from being undermined by a license to discriminate, and to protect LGBTQ people in and from the criminal legal system.
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For non-LGBTQ issues, please contact your local ACLU affiliate.
The ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans Pro
Adult LGBT Population in the United States
This report provides estimates of the number and percent of the U.S. adult population that identifies as LGBT, overall, as well as by age. Estimates of LGBT adults at the national, state, and regional levels are included. We rely on BRFSS data for these estimates. Pooling multiple years of data provides more stable estimates—particularly at the state level.
Combining BRFSS data, we estimate that % of U.S. adults identify as LGBT. Further, we estimate that there are almost million (13,,) LGBT adults in the U.S.
Regions and States
LGBT people reside in all regions of the U.S. (Table 2 and Figure 2). Consistent with the overall population in the Merged States,more LGBT adults exist in the South than in any other region. More than half (%) of LGBT people in the U.S. live in the Midwest (%) and South (%), including million in the Midwest and million in the South. About one-quarter (%) of LGBT adults reside in the West, approximately million people. Less than one in five (%) LGBT adults live in the Northeast ( million).
The perce