Sexual orientation is an individual’s enduring romantic, emotional or sexual attraction towards other persons. For example, heterosexual, bisexual and homosexual orientations range from exclusively heterosexual to exclusive homosexuality.
Gender identity is one’s sense of self as a woman, man or transgender. This may or may not conform to the person’s biological sex.
Gender expression is the outward expression of gender by, for example, behaviour, clothing, hairstyle, voice and body language.
In this book we predominantly speak of LGBT and LGBTI, but other related acronyms are LGBTIQ, SOGI or SSOGIE.
LGBT and LGBTI are people who define themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex. It is a self-referential category.
Lesbian is a woman whose enduring physical, romantic, emotional and/or spiritual attraction is to other women. This does not imply any same-sex sexual expression or activity.
Gay describes people (e.g. gay man, gay people) whose enduring physical, romantic, emotional and/or spiritual attraction is to people of the same sex. In contemporary contexts, ‘lesbian’ is often a preferred term for women and ‘gay’ for men. Again, this does not imply any same-sex sexual expression or activity.
Bisexual is an individual who is physically, romantically, emotionally and/or spiritually attracted to both men and women. A bisexual person may be more attracted to one sex than another and this may vary over time. This does not imply physical or sexual expressions with people of both or either gender, neither does it imply multiple relationships.
Trans, transgender, transsexual and transvestite are umbrella terms for people whose gender identity or gender expression differ from those of the sex they were assigned at birth. They may include but are not limited to: transsexuals, cross-dressers and other gender-variant people. Transgender people may identify as female-to-male (FTM) or male-to-female (MTF) and may or may not decide to alter their bodies hormonally or surgically.
Intersex (previously known as hermaphrodites) is an individual who has an atypical development of physical sex attributes. These may include but are not limited to external genitals that are not easily classified as male or female. Or there may be incomplete development of internal reproductive organs. Some intersex characteristics are recognised at birth. Others are delayed until puberty. The term ‘disorders of sexual development’ (DSD) often refers to intersex conditions.
In the case of LGBTIQ, the ‘Q’ refers to ‘Queer’ or ‘Questioning’.
Queer is a political term for all of sexuality outside of heterosexuality. It is often self-selected by those who either object to or prefer a non-gender-specific term such as ‘gay’ and ‘lesbian’. The term has also been used to quantify those who go against normal convention, so it is not necessarily attached to sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
Words such as ‘napunsaka’, ‘kliba’, ‘pandaka’, ‘pedi’, ‘kinnara’, and ‘kothi’ in Indian languages (Sanskrit, Prakrit, Pali, Tamil and Hindi) conservatively refer to the third gender (i.e., in terms of body or physical characteristics) but can also be liberally translated to include sexualities (i.e., feelings or psychosexual characteristics) across the queer spectrum.
Questioning refers to a state of being unsure of your true sexual identity but being willing to examine what it may be. This does not imply sexual expression or experimentation.
SOGI means sexual orientation and gender identity. For a deeper understanding of SOGI, please refer to the ‘Genderbread person’. http://itspronouncedmetrosexual.com/2012/03/the-genderbread-person-v2-0/.
SSOGIE is a particular definition used by the Global Interfaith Network (GIN) for People of All Sexes, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression.