The Government of Canada's recent royal assent of Bill C-16 in June 2017 has allowed for the inclusion of the concepts "gender identity" and "gender expression" in the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code . These changes reflect the Canadian government's commitment to protecting the rights of trans and gender-diverse people.

In October 2017, the first version of the Gender and sexual diversity glossary was posted online. The development of this Glossary of 104 concepts was part of a vast movement recognizing gender and sexual diversity. The evolving vocabulary in this field, the strong interest in the Glossary and the comments received in response to the first version highlighted the need for an update of the Gender and sexual diversity glossary. This new version contains 193 concepts.

The update of the Gender and sexual diversity glossary was prepared in collaboration with several federal departments and agencies who have a particular interest in the issue, interest groups, academic researchers as well as language experts.

Date posted: February 2019