*What does sexual and gender minority mean?A sexual and/or gender minority is a group whose sexual and/or gender identity, orientation or practices differ from the majority of the surrounding society.

LGBTQIA+ includes terms that describe various gender identities and sexual orientations.

• [L] Lesbian

  Describes a woman who has romantic feelings or sexual attraction for a woman. In Japanese the use of the term "レズ" (rezu) is generally avoided due to its history of being used in hyper-sexualized depictions of lesbian women in media.

• [G] Gay

  Describes a man who has romantic feelings or sexual attraction for a man. Some use it as a generic term for homosexuals or sexual minorities, but its use has been criticized as male-centric.

• [B] Bisexual

  The definition can depend on the individual person, but generally it describes a person who has romantic feelings or sexual attraction for women and men and people of other genders as well. A person who has romantic feelings or sexual attraction for people regardless of gender is also referred to as Pansexual.

• [T] Transgender

  Refers to a person who self-identifies as a gender different from the gender they were assigned at birth. In addition to transgender women and transgender men, some people use "transgender" as an umbrella term for people who do not fit into the gender binary. The umbrella term "transgender" includes for example trans non-binary people, trans-masculine, and others who do not identify as either male or female.

• [Q] Queer

  It is sometimes used as a general term for an identity or sexual minority that represents a political stance against heterosexual or cisgender (= meaning a person whose assigned gender at birth and the gender they identify with are the same) norms. It is also used to describe a person who may feel sexually attracted to all genders. Originally a term used in the English-speaking world with the connotation of "eccentric and/or strange," it was used pejoratively to describe people who did not fit into the gender binary or who were not heterosexual. Since the end of the 20th century, sexual and gender minorities, who had been subjected to such contempt, began to reclaim the term to refer to themselves. Movements and studies began to develop along with the attitude that "we are queer," as a way to fight back.

• [Q] Questioning

  Refers to people who are questioning their own gender identity or sexual orientation, or have intentionally not defined their gender identity or sexual orientation.

• [I] Intersex

  Referes to people with physical or biological characteristics that do not fit into the biological gender binary. Referred to as “Intersex" in English-speaking regions and as DSD (Difference of Sex Development) in Japan, the "I" in LGBTQIA+ is the acronym for Intersex. In Japanese, the uses of words such as "インターセックス (intersex)" and "half-yin-yang (半陰陽)" are generally avoided as they are often used in a misleading or derogatory nuance.

• [A] Asexual

  Refers to people who do not (or rarely experience) sexual attraction towards others, or does not (or rarely experience) sexual desire. In Japanese the term “non-sexual" (ノンセクシャル) can also be used.

Furthermore, the “+" in "LGBTQIA +" indicates that there are many other forms of sexuality.