a slang term for a young, boyish lesbian or bisexual (sapphic) woman.

a young, or recently out lesbian or bisexual woman.

a young, or recently out, gay person.

a young or recently out Queer person.

a boyish lesbian or bisexual (sapphic) woman.

a portmanteau of celebrity and lesbian, celesbian is a slang term for a female celebrity known or reputed to be a lesbian that is popular in the Queer community.

Queer slang for a lesbian and/or Queer (sapphic) woman who is sporty and athletic, as opposed to a lipstick lesbian; a sapphic woman who prefers the natural look over make-up.

simply put, consent is the act of giving permission, voluntarily, to the proposals or desires of another human being. A primary example of consent is the permission given between two or more individuals to engage in physically intimate behaviour with each other. Without consent, such acts are rape.

Both legally, and morally, consent can be subject to outside influences and legislation; for example, although a person under a certain age may give their permission, the law may determine that they are too young to consent (as they have not yet reached the age of consent). It is important to note, too, that permission given after coercion (that is by force or threat, or through manipulation or emotional blackmail), is not consent.

In Queer contexts, consent has an important role in Queer history and modern-day rights issues facing the Queer community.

Particularly in regards to sexuality, the age of consent has been a pressing LGBTQIA+ rights issue, as many countries and states have differing ages of consent for heterosexual and homosexual acts.

Various acts related to “conversion therapy“, particularly those performed on people under the age of eighteen who may be homosexual, bisexual+, asexual or transgender, have also come into the spotlight as a human rights issue, particularly as individuals may be there against their will or due to coercion (that is, without consent).

Consent is a particularly prevalent rights issue regarding intersex individuals, as often infants with an intersex variation may have been victim to “corrective surgery” – where no consent from the individual themselves could possibly have been given for surgery that is cosmetic or unnecessarily, rather than medically required.

Consent laws, particularly surrounding age, have become issues regarding to transgender youth, as seeking medical therapies to navigate their transgender identity may be subject to the permission of their parents, leading to discussions about what ages are appropriate for certain medical, non-surgical therapies (e.g. hormone therapy).

Informed consent is also an important factor to consent: that is, for consent to be given, one must be fully informed of the circumstances, consequences and conditions of the activity in which consent is given. This is particularly pertinent when it comes to accessing medical treatments.

a slang term for lesbian (and by connotation, anyone perceived to be one – including bisexual+ women), and commonly a particularly masculine or butch one. Although originally, and still often used in a derogatory manner, it has been reclaimed by many lesbians and sapphic women as a positive term; for example, the lesbian motorcycle group Dykes on Bikes, and various Dyke Marches that take place during Pride events.

an individual who is primarily, or solely, attracted to people of the same gender; e.g. gay men and gay women (lesbians) – homosexuals. It is also used – such as in the case of the gay community – to describe LGBT+ people as a collective.

Related: lesbian, gay man

an abbreviation of homosexual, referring to people who have sex with people of the same gender – as a result, bisexuals may also be referred to as a “homo“.

The term is problematic due to the term having been used in a pejorative sense against the gay community; however, the term has been reclaimed to some extent and is in use in common Queer parlance.

an alternate term to homosexual or gay that rose to prominence in the early start of the gay rights movement – used as preferred term as homosexual was deemed as too clinical, with connotations of being a psychiatric disorder.

However, it fell out of favour by the early 1970s, when gay, lesbian and bisexual became preferred terminology.

It is seldom used now in the English-speaking word (particularly due to the “phile” having connotations related to words such as paedophile), but in some other languages it continues to be the dominant term.

The range of negative attitudes, intolerance and resentment of homosexuals, homosexuality and therefore, by extension, anyone associated or perceived as being homosexual (and, as such, may include biphobia and transphobia).

Discrimination against gay and Queer people is deep-rooted in society; in much of the world, such attitudes tend to stem from religious teachings, which has led to the criminalisation of homosexuality and homosexual acts, and continues in the form of discrimination.

Someone who possesses homophobia would be described as homophobic.

an individual who possesses homophobia; an adjective that describes attitudes and behaviours that are hostile towards homosexual people, or, by association, the entire gay/Queer community.

An individual who is exclusively, or predominantly, romantically attracted to people of the same sex or gender.

People who are homoromantic may not be homosexual; for example, a bisexual/homoromantic person may be sexually attracted to more than one gender, but only romantically attracted to members of the same gender.

The term is particularly useful to describe asexual people who may be asexual/homoromantic.

More commonly known as gay or lesbian, a homosexual is somebody who is attracted to exclusively, or predominantly, towards people of the same gender or sex.

Many people choose not to use the term homosexual, due to its negative connotations in the past (such as homosexuality being seen as a medical/psychological disorder), and its usage as a negative term.

Related: homophile

the romantic and/or sexual attraction and behaviour between people of the same gender; things related to homosexuals and/or homosexual acts (and therefore, by extension, bisexual+, homoromantic/biromantic individuals).

a gay woman; that is, a woman who solely and/or primarily attracted to people of the same gender – a homosexual female.

The term is derived from the island of Lesbos in Greece, where the poet Sappho – who wrote about same-sex female love – came from.

the concept that lesbian couples experience a decrease in sexual activity after two or so years of being in a relationship. It is based on findings made on a survey in the early 1980s by Philip Blumstein and Pepper Schwartz. The survey claimed that those in same-sex female relationships tended to follow a pattern that the longer the relationship continued, the less sexual activity was experienced, when compared to other couples, including same-sex male couples, opposite-sex couples co-habitating and opposite-sex couples that are married.

However, the study has been criticised as it surrounds ideas about what constitutes as “having sex“, particularly as at the time, and even today, modern discussions surrounding what sex is are usually limited to acts of penetration (that is, vaginal or anal intercourse), and may not have taken into account the vast variety of other sexual or intimate behaviours that take place between couples, and may conflict with studies surrounding differences in female sex satisfaction and orgasms in opposite-sex and same-sex couples (raising the question of whether same-sex female couples outperformed on a “quality vs quantity” basis), or that the results do not extend to considering factors like negative self-esteem and internalised homophobia.

Despite this, lesbian bed death soon became well-known in the Queer lexicon as the subject of dismay and intense debate in lesbian communities, and mockery elsewhere. Some have argued that the pervasive myth around lesbian bed death is due, in part, to lesbophobia.

a woman is who is solely or primarily romantically attracted to other women; a woman who is homoromantic, but not necessarily a homosexual – a woman who is romantically attracted to other women without necessarily being sexually attracted to them, or exclusively sexually attracted to them.

For example, a woman who is asexual/lesbiromantic; or a woman who is bisexual/lesbiromantic.

short for lesbian, it has been used pejoratively in the past but has also been embraced by lesbians in much the same way dyke has. When used prejoratively, it is often applied to any sapphic  woman, or someone who is perceived to be a sapphic woman.

the range of negative attitudes, intolerance and resentment towards lesbian people (and, by association, other sapphic women, such as bisexual women), which may be different to homophobia; such as discrimination, hatred, abuse and/or hostility.

Lesbophobia may differ from homophobia in that it may also encompass sexism and misogyny as well as homophobia, or sexism in spite of homophobia: for example, the belief that same-sex male love is legitimate, “real” or acceptable, but that same-sex female love isn’t.

Lesbophobia, sadly, is not restricted to heterosexual people.

a term to describe lesbians who are feminine, or possess traditionally feminine attributes.

an acronym of “older, wiser lesbian”.

an umbrella term for individuals who attracted in some way to people of the same gender. Including, but not limited to, gay and lesbian people, bisexual+ people, and those on the asexual spectrum who are romantically attracted to people of the same gender, e.g. homoromantic, biromantic.

An alternative to same-sex attracted.

an umbrella term for same-gender loving women or woman-aligned people, such as lesbians and bisexual+ women; an alternative to terms such as women who have sex with women, and used to describe the topics, activities and ideas around it: for example, sapphic relations, sapphic people, sapphic literature. 

a slang term for lesbians who are closeted and present themselves as heterosexual during the week (such as at work, or to family and friends) but frequent lesbian venues at the weekend.

initialism of same-gender loving, used as an umbrella term for individuals/communities that are homosexual, bisexual+, homo/biromantic, etc; essentially, those who are Queer in sexuality, and may or may not include asexual people.