Our staff of experts is available to comment on a wide variety
of issues affecting gay and transgender people. Call our
communications staff at 313.473.7865. Terms to Know Need help
with terminology regarding gay and transgender people? Here are
the basic terms that journalists might encounter: Bisexual. An
individual who is physically, romantically and/or emotionally
attracted to men and women. Bisexuals need not have had sexual
experience with both men and women; in fact, they need not have
had any sexual experience at all to identify as bisexual. Coming
Out. A lifelong process of self-acceptance. People forge a
lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender identity first to
themselves and then may reveal it to others. Publicly
identifying one’s orientation may or may not be part of coming
out. Gay. The adjective used to describe people whose enduring
physical, romantic and/or emotional attractions are to people of
the same sex (e.g., gay man, gay people). In contemporary
contexts, lesbian (n. or adj.) is often a p