Beyond Magenta: Transgender and Nonbinary Teens Speak Out

A bisexual person is sexually attracted to both men and women. Some self-identified bisexuals also use the term to encompass an attraction to people of all genders, essentially using the term interchangeably with “pansexual.”

Cisgender is a neutral term for people who are not trans (i.e., people whose gender identities match their assigned sex at birth). This term may be abbreviated to “cis.”

Gender dysphoria is the feeling that one’s emotional and psychological gender identity clashes with one’s birth sex; many transgender people struggle with gender dysphoria. “Dysphoria” is a psychiatric term that refers to a state of generalized unease and “depressive” symptoms not attributable to an underlying disease. Up to 2013, when the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) was released, the previous diagnostic label was “gender identity disorder”; the condition was renamed given the stigma attached to the term “disorder.”