Chances are if your child comes out to you, he would most likely use the term gay, bisexual, lesbian, queer or trans.  But as a parent, how do you keep up with all the other terms and know their definitions, particularly if you don’t have a knowledge of Latin?  What is the + in LGBT+?

Here’s a primer:
Allosexual:  people who are attracted to at least one gender.
Androsexual:  people who are attracted to masculine gender presentation.
Asexual:      people who don’t experience sexual attraction
Bicurious:   people who are open to experiment with genders that are not only their own, but do not know if they are open to forming any sort of relationship with multiple genders.
Cisgender:      people whose personal identity and gender correspond to their birth sex.
Cishet:              people who are both cisgendered and heterosexual.
Gender-fluid: moving between genders or having a fluctuating gender identity.
Gynosexual:   people being attracted to feminine gender presentation.
Monosexual:  people attracted to only one gender.
Pansexual:      people who are attracted to all genders
Polysexual:     people attracted to many genders.
Queer:              A reclaimed term for anybody in the LGBT+ community or who do not identify as cisgender and/or heterosexual/heteroromantic.
Non-binary:   an umbrella term for genders that fall somewhere in the middle of the gender spectrum and are neither strictly male or female.  i.e. genderqueer.
Transsexual:  people who have had Gender Reassignment Surgery (GRS) to change their sexual organs that they were born with to that of a different gender.
MtF:  When somebody who is assigned as a male at birth identifies as a female.
              HtM:  When somebody who is assigned as a female at birth identifies as a male.

There are many more terms, but this vocabulary will get you started.

For a good reference, look at http://www.Gender: Your Guide: A Gender-Friendly Primer on What to Know, What to Say, and What to Do in the New Gender Culture by Lee Airton, Ph.D.