Many people outside of the community may not understand terms used by the LGBTQ* community. When this is true of healthcare professionals it can be detrimental to the patient if their HCP don't understand what their patients are trying to communicate and the potential risks involved. It also puts the patient more at ease to be understood and able to converse in language they feel comfortable with.
• Asexual: a person who is not sexually attracted to any gender and may or may not experience any sexual urges at all.
• Alphabet soup: used to refer to the debate over which letters should be or should not be used in the acronym for the community and what they stand for.
• Bareback: unprotected sexual intercourse.
• Bisexual: a person who is attracted to both genders.
• Beard: a person of the opposite gender that pretends to date a homosexual person to help hide their sexual orientation.
• Bottom: in anal sex, the partner being penetrated. Also known as a catcher.
• Bumper-to-bumper: vagina-to-vagina contact.
• Buttplug: an anal dildo with a flared base.
• Cheese: dried accumulation underneath a foreskin. Also known as smegma.
• Circle jerk: group masturbation.
• (in the) Closet: to keep one’s sexual identity a secret, not living openly about it.
• Come out (of the closet): to openly accept one’s sexual identity.
• Cock ring: a ring that goes around the base of the penis to prolong erection.
• Cut: a circumcised penis.
• Discreet: a person who is not out yet or very private about their sexual orientation.
• Gay: a homosexual person, more commonly describing a male but not always.
• Gold star: a lesbian or gay male who has never been with the opposite gender.
• Hasbian: a woman who used to identify as a lesbian who now dates males.
• Heterosexual: a person who is attracted to the opposite gender as them.
• Homosexual: a person who is attracted to the same gender as them. They might identify with other terms to describe themselves like gay, lesbian, or queer.
• Lesbian: a homosexual woman.
• NSA: “no strings attached”, casual sex.
• Out: to out someone is to reveal their orientation against their wishes.
• Pansexual: a person who is attracted to people of all gender identity (tends to be more inclusive of transpeople and people who are intersex).
• Pillow princess: a woman who allows other women to preform oral sex on her but who doesn’t reciprocate.
• PNP: “party and play” culture of doing drugs and having sex.
• Poz: an HIV positive person.
• Queer: a general term to describe people who are not cis heterosexual (so LGBT). Some people identify more strongly with this term but others are offended by it.
• Rimming: oral sex preformed on the anus. Also known as ass blow or salad tossing.
• Top: the sexual partner who is doing the penetration. Also known as a pitcher.
• Uncut: an uncircumcised penis.
• U-haul: the idea that lesbians tend to commit very early and move in together fast.
• Vers: short for “versatile”. Someone who can either top or bottom.