Terminology
Biological sex: the biological classification of bodies as male or female based on factors including external sex organs, internal sexual and reproductive organs, hormones, or chromosomes.
Bisexual: a person who is attracted both to women and men.
Gay: a synonym for homosexual in English and some other languages, sometimes used to describe only males who are attracted primarily to other males.
Gender: the social and cultural codes (as opposed to biological sex) used to distinguish between what a society considers “masculine” or “feminine” conduct.
Gender Identity: a person’s internal, deeply felt sense of being female or male, or something other than female or male.
Gender-based violence: violence directed against a person on the basis of gender or perceived sexual orientation. Gender-based violence can include sexual violence, domestic violence, psychological abuse, sexual exploitation, sexual harassment, harmful traditional practices, and discriminatory practices based on gender. The term originally described violence against women but is now taken to include violence targeted at both women and men because of how they experience and express their genders and sexualities.
Hamjensbaz: a derogatory but commonly used Persian term for homosexuals.
Heterosexual: a person attracted primarily to people of the opposite sex.
Homosexual: a person attracted primarily to people of the same sex.
Intersex: a person who is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that does not fit the typical definitions of female or male.
Lesbian: a female attracted primarily to other females.
LGBT: lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender; an inclusive term for groups and identities sometimes associated together as “sexual minorities.” In this report the term LGBT is generally used to refer to individuals who self-identify as either lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.
MSM: men (or males) who have sex with men. Men who have sex with men may or may not identify as gay or bisexual.
Sexual minorities: an all-inclusive term that includes all persons with non-conforming sexualities and gender identities, such as LGBT, men who have sex with men (and may not self-identify as LGBT) and women who have sex with women.
Sexual orientation: the way in which a person’s sexual and emotional desires are directed. The term categorizes according to the sex of the object of desire—that is, it describes whether a person is attracted primarily toward people of the same or opposite sex or to both.
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 (or transmen) were born with a female body but have a predominantly male gender identity; male-to-female (MTF) transgender people (or transwomen) were born with a male body but have a predominantly female gender identity.
Transsexual: a person who has undergone or is in the process of undergoing hormone therapies and the complex of cosmetic and reconstructive procedures usually known as sex reassignment surgery (SRS) so that their physical sex corresponds to their internal gender identity.
WSW: women (or females) who have sex with women. Women who have sex with women may or may not identify as lesbian or bisexual.