GLOSSARY
Sexual Identity
Gender Identity
Sexual Orientation
Transgender
Homosexual
Transsexual
Intersex
Queer
Bisexual
Two-Spirit
Lesbian
Transvestite
Gay
Coming Out
Kinsey Scale
Internalized Homophobia
Heterosexism
Sexual identity The biological sex of the person, as in male or female.
Gender identity A person’s sense of him or herself, as masculine or feminine or somewhere in between. Gender possibilities are broad, and people can exist anywhere along a continuum.
Sexual orientation The affective and/or erotic attraction of a person to the same or opposite sex, or both. There are three sexual orientations: homosexuality, bisexuality and heterosexuality.
Transgender The term transgender is used in so many different ways that it is almost impossible to define it. Some use it to refer to people whose behaviour or gender expression does not match their physiological sex. Some use it to describe a gender outside the man/woman binary. Some use it to describe the condition of having no gender or multiple genders. Other possibilities include people who deliberately play with gender.
Homosexual A person who is attracted emotionally and/or physically to people of the same sex.
Transsexual A person who has a long-term conviction of being of the opposite sex from their physiological sex.
Intersex Someone whose sex glands do not totally match the sex assigned at birth (e.g. male with ovarian tissue or female with testicular tissue), or one whose sexual development does not match the sex assigned at birth (e.g. development of penis or extensive facial hair in someone assigned as female or the development of breasts in one assigned as male).
Queer This English word means strange and has been long used in Anglo-Saxon countries to refer pejoratively to gays and lesbians. This word has nevertheless been reclaimed by some LGBTTIQ people and used as an umbrella term to capture the diversity of the LGBTTIQ community.
Bisexual A woman or a man who is attracted, emotionally and/or physically, to both men and women.
Two-spirit This concept is used by some native people to represent gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals. It refers, according to certain Amerindian beliefs, to the human being's source of creation, which would encompass the body, and soul of both men and women.
Lesbian A woman who is attracted emotionally and/or physically to women.
Transvestite A person who derives pleasure in dressing in clothing of the opposite sex, for example a man who enjoys dressing in women’s clothing.
Gay A man who is attracted emotionally and/or physically to men. Some lesbian women identify as gay.
Coming out (the affirmation of one's sexual orientation) Process that a person undertakes to begin accepting sexual orientation or gender identify, and/or identifying as gay, lesbian or bisexual, queer, intersex, transsexual, transgender, two-spirit, etc. Kinsey Scale A scale developed by an American researcher at the end of the 1940s that conceives sexual orientation as a continuum: 0 representing exclusive heterosexuality, 3 bisexuality and 6 exclusively homosexuality. There are also intermediate categories. To see the scale and its explanation, go to http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/
Internalized homophobia Assimilation of homophobic attitudes and behaviours leading to a lack of affirmation of one’s sexual orientation to others or to oneself. A person that experiences internalized homophobia may refuse to accept him or herself as a gay, bisexual or lesbian and may reject or denigrate homosexuals or bisexuals.
Homophobia and Transphobia The discomfort, fear, hatred and ignorance towards the realities of gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans people. It is expressed through discrimination, exclusion, prejudice, abuse and violence (verbal or physical).
Heterosexism The conviction, bias or assumption that heterosexuality is the only way to live normally or naturally one's life. This belief reinforces the idea that gays, lesbians and bisexuals are not normal, are rejected and invisible, and that heterosexuality is better than homosexuality.