Glossary of terms:
LGBTIQ+: Acronym for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex and Queer people.
Lesbian: A woman who is sexually and/or emotionally attracted to women.
Gay: A man who is sexually and/or emotionally attracted to men.
Bisexual: Term used to describe a person who is emotionally, physically and/or sexually attracted to male/men and females/women. This attraction does not have to be equally split between genders and there may be a preference for one gender over others.
Trans person/people/man/woman: An inclusive umbrella term referring to those people whose gender identity and/or a gender expression differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.
Intersex: Term that relates to a range of physical traits or variations that lie between stereotypical ideals of male and female. Intersex people are born with physical, hormonal or genetic features that are neither wholly female nor wholly male; or a combination of female and male; or neither female nor male. Many forms of intersex exist; it is a spectrum or umbrella term, rather than a single category.
Queer: Has become an academic term that is inclusive of people who are not heterosexual - includes lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and trans people. Queer theory is challenging heteronormative social norms concerning gender and sexuality, and claims that gender roles are social constructions. Traditionally the term "queer" was an abusive term and therefore for some still has negative connotations. Many LGBTI persons however have reclaimed the term as a symbol of pride.
Plus / +: The ‘+’ sign is used as “plus” in order to describe all the other gender and sexual orientations that don’t fit into the letters.
Coming out: The process of revealing ones identification as a lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans or intersex person.
Homosexual: A person who feels physically and/or emotionally attracted to people of the same gender as their own.
Heterosexual: A person who feels physically and/or emotionally attracted to people of a gender other than their own.
Transphobia/Homophobia: The irrational hatred and fear of LGBTQI+ people. Homophobia and transphobia include prejudice, discrimination, harassment, and acts of violence brought on by fear and hatred. It occurs on personal, institutional, and societal levels.
Terms related to gender expression and identity:
Gender: A social construct used to classify a person as a man, woman, or some other identity. Fundamentally different from the sex one is assigned at birth; a set of social, psychological and emotional traits, often influenced by societal expectations.
Gender identity: Refers to each person's deeply felt internal and individual experience of gender, which may or may not correspond with the sex they were assigned at birth.
Gender expression: Refers to people's manifestation of their gender identity, and the one that is perceived by others. Typically, people seek to make their gender expression or presentation match their gender identity/identities, irrespective of the sex that they were assigned at birth.
Gender reassignment: Refers to the process through which people re-define the gender in which they live in order to better express their gender identity. This process may, but does not have to, involve medical assistance including hormone therapies and any surgical procedures that trans people undergo to align their body with their gender. This process, however, also includes some or all of the following social and legal adjustments: coming out to family, friends and colleagues; dressing and acting according to one's gender; changing one's name and/or sex on legal documents; and meeting other legal or judicial procedures depending on national law.
Transgender (trans): Used most often as an umbrella term, some commonly held definitions: 1. Someone whose gender identity or expression does not fit (dominant-group social constructs of) assigned birth sex and gender. 2. A gender outside of the man/woman binary. 3. Having no gender or multiple genders.
Trans woman: A woman who was assigned male at birth
Trans man: A man who was assigned female at birth
Cisgender: A person whose gender identity corresponds with the sex the person had or was identified as having at birth.
Cisnormativity: Refers to the practices and institutions that legitimise and privilege those who are comfortable in the gender belonging to the sex assigned to them at birth. On the other hand, this norm systematically disadvantages and marginalises all persons whose gender identity and expression do not meet social expectations.
Nonbinary: A gender identity that embraces full universe of expressions and ways of being that resonate with an individual. It may be an active resistance to binary gender expectations and/or an intentional creation of new unbounded ideas of self within the world.
Gender fluid: Denoting or relating to a person who does not identify themselves as having a fixed gender.
Terms related to sex:
Biological sex: Biological sex is determined by chromosomes (XX for females; XY for males); hormones (estrogen/progesterone for females, testosterone for males); and internal and external genitalia (vulva, clitoris, vagina for assigned females, penis and testicles for assigned males). Given the potential variation in all of these, biological sex must be seen as a spectrum or range of possibilities rather than a binary set of two options.
Sex assigned at birth: The physical structure of one’s reproductive organs that is used to assign sex at birth. Usually ‘male’, ‘female’ or ‘intersex’.
Intersex: People who, without medical intervention, develop primary or secondary sex characteristics that do not fit “neatly” into society's definitions of male or female. Many visibly intersex people are mutilated in infancy and early childhood by doctors to make the individual’s sex characteristics conform to society’s idea of what normal bodies should look like. Intersex people are relatively common, although society's denial of their existence has allowed very little room for intersex issues to be discussed publicly.
Terms related to sexual orientation :
Sexual orientation: Refers to each person’s capacity for profound affection, emotional and sexual attraction to, and intimate and sexual relations with, individuals of a different gender or the same gender or more than one gender.
Heteronormativity: Refers to cultural and social practices where men and women are led to believe that heterosexuality is the only conceivable sexuality. It implies that heterosexuality is the only way of being “normal”
Asexuality: Generally characterized by not feeling sexual attraction or a desire for partnered sexuality. Asexuality is distinct from celibacy, which is the deliberate abstention from sexual activity.
Pansexual/Omnisexual: Terms used to describe people who have romantic, sexual or affectional desire for people of all genders and sexes.
Terms related to family and marriage:
Rainbow family: A family where a child has (or several children have) at least one parent who identifies themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex or queer.
Registered partnership: A legal recognition of relationships which however does not always provide the same benefits as marriage - synonymous with a civil union or civil partnership.
Marriage equality: Where national marriage legislation also includes same-sex couples – e.g. gender neutral reference to the spouses. Sometimes media outlets and decision makers incorrectly refer to the extension of existing marriage legislation to same-sex couples as ‘gay marriage’. What they really mean is marriage equality; no country has created a marriage law specifically for same-sex couples.
Same-sex marriage: the term same-sex marriage does not exist in reality. There is no country which has a specific marriage law solely for same-sex couples. The right term is marriage equality, as the aim is to open marriage laws to same-sex couples to give them the same rights as different-sex couples. See marriage equality
Second parent adoption: Where a same-sex partner is allowed to adopt their partner’s biological child(ren).
Successive adoption: where a same-sex partner is allowed to adopt their partner’s adopted child.
Surrogacy: an arrangement in which a woman carries and delivers a child for another couple or for another person.
The above glossary is in no way exhaustive. It was put together in order to provide visitors with terms they may not be familiar with when reading through the exhibition’s testimonials.
A more extensive glossary can be found on the ILGA-EUROPE website.