The abbreviation LSBTIQ* stands for: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, inter*, non-binary and queer people.
The asterisk* here stands for all the sexual orientations and gender identities that are not directly part of the abbreviation, so it is intended to make the entire diversity of queer identities visible.
The abbreviation LGBTQI* is often used instead of LGBTIQ*. This is the English variant (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, queer, inter*). Other variations are also common, sometimes with additional letters such as A for asexual, aromantic and agender or a plus+ instead of the asterisk* at the end.

The General Equal Treatment Act (AGG), also known as the Anti-Discrimination Act, prohibits discrimination on racial grounds or on the grounds of ethnic origin, gender, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual identity by private actors or in the world of work.

The prefix allo- (Greek for different) is used as a counterpart to the prefix a- in aromantic and asexual and describes people who basically feel a sexual (allosexual) or romantic (alloromantic) attraction towards other people.

An ally is a person who is not part of a marginalized group but who actively advocates for their rights and concerns. Allies use their position (and their privilege) to support the concerns of the marginalized group and advocate for equality and acceptance. This means, for example, that they intervene when they experience discrimination against members of this group.

The prefix a- (Greek for not) is used in the context of sexual and romantic orientations as well as gender identity.
The terms asexual and aromantic describe people who feel no or little sexual (asexual) or romantic (aromantic) attraction towards other people.
Agender / asexual, on the other hand, is a gender identity that describes people who do not feel they belong to any gender or who reject the concept of gender.

"The binary Western gender model or the two-gender model is based on the assumption that there are only two genders, "man" and "woman", or that only men and women are the gender norm. All other gender identities are not taken into account.
Based on this assumption, there are "men's" and "women's" toilets, "women's" and "men's fashion", "men's" and "women's" teams in sport, which also play in their own "men's" and "women's" leagues. The binary gender model therefore affects all areas of society. People who move outside of this classification - such as inter* and/or non-binary people - have no access to these clearly gender-segregated offers, are excluded and thus completely excluded or have to misclassify themselves."

Source: Network Gender Diversity Trans* NRW - Glossary (see sidebar)

People who identify as bi (lat. two) are attracted to people of different genders (at least two).

Cis (Latin for this side) or cisgender is the opposite of trans* and refers to people who identify with the gender they were assigned at birth.

Coming out is the process in which a person becomes aware of their sexual orientation or gender identity and begins to communicate this to other people. Coming out is usually a lifelong process that often has to be repeated in new environments. In contrast to coming out as a self-determined process, outing is a process that is carried out by others.

A dead name is an old, discarded first name. It is usually the birth name of a trans* person who has a new name. Using a dead name is very hurtful for the person concerned and should therefore always be avoided.

Discrimination refers to the disadvantaging of people on the basis of certain characteristics such as ethnic or social origin, age, disability, religion or even sexual orientation and gender identity.

There are often special terms for certain types of discrimination, e.g. trans hostility refers to discrimination against trans* people or homophobia refers to discrimination against lesbians and gays. The term hostility is preferable to the term phobia, as phobias are medical diagnoses and the resulting involuntary behavior and not, as with trans hostility etc., consciously exclusionary behavior.

In addition to the gender entries female and male, there has also been the entry diverse in Germany since the end of 2018. This is not a third gender, but a collective entry that is intended to reflect gender variations beyond the binary and is primarily aimed at inter* people. However, trans* and non-binary people also have the opportunity to have their gender entry changed under certain conditions. It has also been possible to leave the gender entry open under certain conditions since 2013.

The term diversity comes from the English language and means variety/diversity.
As a rule, diversity includes characteristics such as ethnicity, social background, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age and religion, although the perspective can be expanded to include many (individual) characteristics.

Diversity management is the targeted shaping of social and personal diversity in order to reduce discrimination and create equal opportunities. The diversity of the members of an organization is also recognized as potential, valued and actively used.

Endo refers to people who are not inter*, i.e. whose bodies can be classified as clearly male or female according to medical standards.

The abbreviations FINTA (women, inter*, non-binary, trans* and agender people) and FLINT (women, lesbians, inter*, non-binary and trans* people) are used to indicate who is welcome in (activist) spaces or at certain events.

Although the English term gender literally means sex, it refers more specifically to the social dimension of gender. In English, a distinction is therefore also made between gender, i.e. the social gender, and sex, the biological gender that is assigned to people based on physical characteristics.

Social gender encompasses a person's gender identity, but also refers to the socio-cultural structures, ideas and expectations of gender, for example in the form of gender roles and stereotypes.

A person's gender identity describes the gender or genders with which they identify themselves. The gender identity does not have to correspond to the gender that the person was assigned at birth. Examples of gender identities are cis, trans*, inter* and non-binary.

People who identify as hetero (Greek for unequal) feel attracted to people of the opposite sex.

In Western society, heterosexuality is considered the norm - see also heteronormativity. Therefore, the term heterosexuality is normally used for men who are attracted to women and women who are attracted to men.

Heteronormativity is a view that sees heterosexuality and binary cis-gender as the norm and is a frequent cause of discrimination against LGBTIQ* people.

People who identify as homosexual (Greek: same) feel attracted to people of their own or a similar gender. Homosexual men often describe themselves as gay, homosexual women as lesbian.

Inter* (lat. between) is a term for people whose biological sex characteristics (e.g. chromosomes or genitalia) do not correspond to the medical norms of clearly female or clearly male. Intersex is a spectrum and the asterisk* after the adjective inter* therefore also stands for the variety of inter* identities and the different terms that can be used to describe them.

"Intersectionality means that different social categories - e.g. gender, sexuality, skin color, origin, religion, age, social background - are interwoven and therefore cannot be considered separately. This means that different forms of discrimination, such as racism, homophobia and trans* hostility, are also interrelated and must be viewed in this context. An intersectional approach analyzes how different forms of discrimination interact and what interactions they have. After all, everyone has multiple affiliations (see multiple affiliations/multiple discrimination), which can lead to exclusions or inclusions. One term that expresses these different levels/dimensions is multidimensional discrimination."

Source: Brochure "Sexual and gender diversity in the migration society" (see sidebar)

Women and non-binary people who feel attracted to women often describe themselves as lesbians.

Non-binary people are people whose gender identity deviates from the binary gender system because they do not or only partially or temporarily identify as male or female. Non-binary is therefore also an umbrella term for different gender identities such as agender (not belonging to any gender) or genderfluid (a changing gender identity, e.g. sometimes female, sometimes non-binary, etc.).

In contrast to coming out, coming out is not a self-determined process. Coming out means disclosing someone's gender identity or sexual orientation to other people, usually without the consent of the person concerned.

People who identify as pan (Greek for all) are attracted to people of all genders or the gender of a person is irrelevant to their attraction.

Privileges are advantages and opportunities from which members of a majority group benefit, often to the detriment of marginalized people. Privileges are therefore also the counterpart to discrimination.
Privileged people face fewer barriers to accessing certain resources. Privileged people often take their status for granted and are not aware of their privileges or the fact that other people do not automatically have the same advantages and opportunities.
One example of a privilege is marriage, because for heterosexual people this is usually a matter of course, but for many members of the LGBTIQ* community it has only been an option in Germany since 2017 and in many countries marriage is still not possible for same-sex couples.

When we talk about pronouns in the context of diversity, we are referring to the small words that are used to establish a reference to third parties. In German, these are classically the two binary pronouns sie/ihr and er/ihm. In addition, there is also the neutral or neuter es/ihm, which some non-binary people also use to refer to themselves, but which is generally used to refer to things and should not be used to refer to other people. This is why many non-binary people use so-called neopronouns (neo = Latin for new), which depict gender identities beyond the binary options of she/her and he/him.

The more widespread German neopronouns include sier/siem and xier/xiem, hen, borrowed from Swedish, or they/them or, in German, dey/dem, which comes from English and has been used there for centuries as a pronoun for people whose gender is unknown. Some people also want their name to be used for them instead of pronouns and then add "no pronoun" after their name, for example.

Examples:
Xier/xiem: Xier is new here. This is xiem's office.
Hen: Hen is new here. This is hen's office.
Dey/dem: Dey is new here. This is their office.
First name: Sam is new here. This is Sam's office.

Pronouns are often given in the nominative/dative case, as in this text, and are placed after the name in email signatures or profile names, for example: Sam Müller (xier/xiem).

Today, queer is often used as a self-designation by people whose sexual orientation or gender identity deviates from the heteronormative norm. Like the abbreviation LGBTIQ*, it is sometimes used as a collective term for the community, but sometimes also as a specific description, e.g. genderqueer. It is also used in an academic context to describe theories and fields of study that often attempt to break down heteronormative pigeonholing in an interdisciplinary and intersectional way.

As queer has its origins as an insult in English, some members of the LGBTIQ* community also reject the term, especially as a term used by others.

A rainbow family is a family in which at least one parent is gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans*, inter*, non-binary or queer.

The rainbow flag was designed in 1978 in San Francisco by the American artist Gilbert Baker so that gay activists had a positive symbol for their actions. With its six colors today (there used to be eight), it is considered a symbol of diversity and pride in the international LGBTIQ* community. Accordingly, it is also known in English as the pride flag.

A variation of the rainbow flag is the progress flag. It was designed in its original form in 2017 by the non-binary graphic designer Daniel Quasar. In addition to the familiar stripes of the rainbow flag, it also contains the colors of the Trans Pride flag (light blue, pink and white) as well as a brown and black stripe. The latter stands for BIPoC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color), but the black stripe is also intended to represent all those who have died as a result of AIDS or are living with the stigma of HIV infection. In its updated version, the flag also includes the symbol of the Inter-Pride flag, a purple ring on a yellow background.

There is also a separate Pride flag for almost every sexual orientation and gender identity.

Romantic orientation describes which gender or genders a person feels emotionally or romantically attracted to. A person's romantic orientation may or may not be congruent with their sexual orientation.

In common parlance, terms such as heterosexual, homosexual and bisexual are often used to describe romantic and sexual orientation equally. If romantic and sexual orientation are not congruent, terms such as heteroromantic, homoromantic and biromantic are also used to differentiate between the two - i.e. the same prefixes with a different ending.

Men and non-binary people who feel attracted to men often describe themselves as gay.

Sexual orientation describes which gender or genders a person feels physically or sexually attracted to. A person's sexual orientation may or may not be congruent with their romantic orientation.

In common parlance, terms such as heterosexual, homosexual and bisexual are often used to express romantic and sexual orientation in equal measure.

The abbreviation TERF stands for trans-exclusionary radical feminists, i.e. radical feminists who exclude trans* people. They believe that there are only two genders and that these are differentiated from each other by physical characteristics, in accordance with the binary gender system. TERFs are primarily trans-misogynistic and refuse to see trans* women as women and actively try to exclude them from spaces and organizations for women.

Trans*, transgender or transsexual are umbrella terms for all people who do not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. Trans* (lat. beyond) is therefore the opposite of cis. Trans* people can identify as male or female, or as non-binary. Accordingly, the asterisk* after the adjective trans* also stands for the variety of trans* identities and the different terms that can describe them, such as transgender or transsexual.

The terms transsexuality and transsexual are rejected by many trans* people today due to their origins in a medical context.

The underscore_ (also gender gap) is used like the asterisk* or the colon: as a placeholder to include all genders and identities beyond the binary gender model. In this way, more than just two genders are included when reading. The gender gap is pronounced by a short pause between the separated parts of the word.