Glossary of Key Terms

Biological sex: the biological classification of bodies as male or female, based on factors including external sex organs, internal sexual and reproductive organs, hormones, and chromosomes.

Bisexual: a person who is attracted to both sexes.

Escinsel: a synonym for homosexual.

Gay: a synonym for homosexual. Sometimes used to describe only males who are attracted primarily to other males.

Gender: the social and cultural codes used to distinguish between what a society considers "masculine" or "feminine" conduct or appearance.

Gender nonconforming: a term used to refer to a person who does not conform either to expectations for their assigned sex or to the binary nature of male and female gender assignments.

Gender expression: the external characteristics and behaviors which societies define as "masculine" or "feminine"-including such attributes as dress, appearance, mannerisms, speech patterns, and social behavior and interactions.

Gender identity: a person's internal, deeply felt sense of being male or female, or something other than or in between male and female.

Heterosexual: a person attracted primarily to people of the opposite gender.

Homosexual: a person attracted primarily to people of the same gender.

Honor killing: the murder of a person, usually a woman, suspected of having offended the "honor" of her family or community, generally on the basis of sexual behavior deemed transgressive-for example, engaging in a sexual relationship outside of heterosexual marriage.

Ibne: pejorative term used to refer to a man attracted primarily to someone of the same gender, derived from an Arabic term for the "habitual bottom" in sex between men.

Lesbian: a female attracted primarily to other females.

LGBT: lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender; an inclusive term for groups and identities sometimes also associated together as "sexual minorities."

Namus: honor. Generally perceived as social standing in the public sphere and mainly defined through women's' sexuality and her behavior.

Same-sex: term often used to describe the relationships of lesbian, gay, bisexual and some transgender people.

Sexual orientation: the way in which a person's sexual and emotional desires are directed. The term categorizes according to the gender of the object of desire-that is, it describes whether a person is attracted primarily toward people of the same or opposite gender or to both.

Top: literally, "ball": in slang, generally means a passive partner in a same-sex relationship between men.

Töre: custom

Transgender: one whose inner gender identity or outward gender expression differs from the physical characteristics of their body at birth. Female-to-male (FTM) transgender people were born with female bodies but have a predominantly male gender identity; male-to-female (MTF) transgender people were born with male bodies but have a predominantly female gender identity.