VII. Appendix: TerminologyBiological 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 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 used to distinguish between what a society considers “masculine” or “feminine” conduct. Gender-based violence: violence directed against a person on the basis of gender or sex. 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. HIV: human immunodeficiency virus, the virus which causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Homosexual: a person attracted primarily to people of the same sex. 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.” 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 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. Women who have sex with women: women who engage in sexual behavior with other women, but do not necessarily identify as “gay,” “homosexual,” “lesbian,” or “bisexual.” |