Terminology Recap

Sexual Orientation

• An umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or expression is different from cultural expectations based on the sex they were assigned at birth.

• A person’s physical, romantic, emotional, aesthetic, and/or other form of attraction(s) to others.

• Used to describe a person whose gender identity aligns with those typically associated with the sex assigned to them at birth.

• Used to describe a variety of differences in sex traits and reproductive anatomy, including differences in genitalia, chromosomes, gonads, internal sex organs, hormone production, hormone response, and/or secondary sex traits.

Queer

• An umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or expression is different from cultural expectations based on the sex they were assigned at birth.

• A person’s physical, romantic, emotional, aesthetic, and/or other form of attraction(s) to others.

• Used to describe a person whose gender identity aligns with those typically associated with the sex assigned to them at birth.

• A reclaimed term that represents a spectrum of identities and orientations that counter to the mainstream. Is often used as an umbrella term that includes folks that do not identify as exclusively straight and/or cisgender.

Cisgender

• An umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or expression is different from cultural expectations based on the sex they were assigned at birth.

• Used to describe a person whose gender identity aligns with those typically associated with the sex assigned to them at birth.

• A system in which gender is constructed into two strict categories of male or female. Gender identity is expected to align with the sex assigned at birth and gender expressions and roles fit traditional expectations.

• Used to describe a variety of differences in sex traits and reproductive anatomy, including differences in genitalia, chromosomes, gonads, internal sex organs, hormone production, hormone response, and/or secondary sex traits.

Transgender

• An umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or expression is different from cultural expectations based on the sex they were assigned at birth.

• Used to describe a person whose gender identity aligns with those typically associated with the sex assigned to them at birth.

• A system in which gender is constructed into two strict categories of male or female. Gender identity is expected to align with the sex assigned at birth and gender expressions and roles fit traditional expectations.

• Used to describe a variety of differences in sex traits and reproductive anatomy, including differences in genitalia, chromosomes, gonads, internal sex organs, hormone production, hormone response, and/or secondary sex traits.

Gender Binary

• An umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or expression is different from cultural expectations based on the sex they were assigned at birth.

• A person’s physical, romantic, emotional, aesthetic, and/or other form of attraction(s) to others.

• A system in which gender is constructed into two strict categories of male or female. Gender identity is expected to align with the sex assigned at birth and gender expressions and roles fit traditional expectations.

• Used to describe a variety of differences in sex traits and reproductive anatomy, including differences in genitalia, chromosomes, gonads, internal sex organs, hormone production, hormone response, and/or secondary sex traits.

Intersex

• An umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or expression is different from cultural expectations based on the sex they were assigned at birth.

• A person’s physical, romantic, emotional, aesthetic, and/or other form of attraction(s) to others.

• Used to describe a person whose gender identity aligns with those typically associated with the sex assigned to them at birth.

• Used to describe a variety of differences in sex traits and reproductive anatomy, including differences in genitalia, chromosomes, gonads, internal sex organs, hormone production, hormone response, and/or secondary sex traits.

Heterosexism

• A system of attitudes, bias, and discrimination that grants preferential treatment to cisgender people and reinforces the idea that being cisgender is somehow better or more legitimate than being transgender, and/or makes non-normative gender identities invisible.

• An idea that one can only have an attraction towards a singular gender. Enforces the idea that if you aren’t straight then you must be gay or lesbian and that bisexuality and pansexuality do not exist.

• A system of attitudes, bias, and discrimination that grants preferential treatment to heterosexual people and reinforces the idea that heterosexuality is somehow better or more “right” than queerness, and/or makes other sexualities invisible.

Cissexism

• A system of attitudes, bias, and discrimination that grants preferential treatment to cisgender people and reinforces the idea that being cisgender is somehow better or more legitimate than being transgender, and/or makes non-normative gender identities invisible.

• An idea that one can only have an attraction towards a singular gender. Enforces the idea that if you aren’t straight then you must be gay or lesbian and that bisexuality and pansexuality do not exist.

• A system of attitudes, bias, and discrimination that grants preferential treatment to heterosexual people and reinforces the idea that heterosexuality is somehow better or more “right” than queerness, and/or makes other sexualities invisible.

Monosexism

• A system of attitudes, bias, and discrimination that grants preferential treatment to cisgender people and reinforces the idea that being cisgender is somehow better or more legitimate than being transgender, and/or makes non-normative gender identities invisible.

• An idea that one can only have an attraction towards a singular gender. Enforces the idea that if you aren’t straight then you must be gay or lesbian and that bisexuality and pansexuality do not exist.

• A system of attitudes, bias, and discrimination that grants preferential treatment to heterosexual people and reinforces the idea that heterosexuality is somehow better or more “right” than queerness, and/or makes other sexualities invisible.

What specific questions do you have?