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GLOSSARY OF TERMS
Bisexual
This is the term used to describe people who are emotionally and physically attracted to both sexes.
Gay
This is the term used to describe men who have an emotional and physical attraction to the same sex. Some women also prefer to identify as gay.
Heterosexual/straight
These are the main terms used to describe people who are emotionally and physically attracted to the opposite sex.
Lesbian
This is the term used to describe women who have an emotional and physical attraction to the same sex. Some women may prefer the term "gay".
Transgender People or Trans People
These are umbrella terms used to describe a range of people whose gender identity or gender expression differ in some way from the gender assumptions made about them when they were born.
Gender Identity
This is an individual's internal self-perception of their own gender. A person may identify as a man, as a woman or as androgyne/polygender.
Gender Expression
This is an individual's external gender-related appearance (including clothing) and behaviour (including interests and mannerisms). A person may have masculine, feminine or androgynous aspects of their appearance or behaviour.
Biological Sex
A person's biological sex includes all aspects of their gender-related biological structure: not only their genitals but also their internal reproductive system, their chromosomes and their secondary sexual characteristics such as breasts, facial and body hair, voice, and body shape. Most people's biological sex will be clearly and consistently female or male. However, a small but significant number of people have bodies which are not completely male or female. People born with these kinds of physical variations are referred to as intersex people. A person may also have a biological sex which is not completely clearly male or female if they have undergone some hormonal or surgical intervention as part of a process of gender reassignment.
Gender Dysphoria
This is a recognised medical issue for which gender reassignment treatment is available on the National Health Service in Scotland. Gender dysphoria is distress, unhappiness and discomfort experienced by someone about their biological sex not fully matching their gender identity. Transsexual people usually experience intense gender dysphoria which is significantly reduced by transitioning to live as their self-identified gender, perhaps taking hormones and/or getting surgery to make their physical bodies match their gender identity better. Other types of transgender people may also experience various degrees of gender dysphoria, especially when unable to fully express their gender identity.
Transsexual People
This is a term used to describe people who consistently self-identify as the opposite gender from the gender they were labelled at birth based on their physical body. Depending on the range of options and information available to them during their life, most transsexual people try to find a way to transition to live fully in the gender that they self-identify as. Transitioning is also known as gender reassignment. Many, but not all, transsexual people take hormones and some also have surgery to make their physical bodies match their gender identity better. A female-to-male ( FTM) transsexual man (trans man) is someone who was labelled female at birth but has a male gender identity and therefore is currently seeking to transition, or has already transitioned, to live permanently as a man. A male-to-female ( MTF) transsexual woman (trans woman) is someone who was labelled male at birth but has a female gender identity and therefore is currently seeking to transition, or has already transitioned, to live permanently as a woman.
Intersex People
This is a term used to describe people born with external genitals, internal reproductive systems or chromosomes that are in-between what is considered clearly male or female. There are many different intersex conditions. When an intersex baby has ambiguous genitals, medical staff often make an educated guess about which gender to assign to the baby. Sometimes the person's gender identity matches their assigned gender, but sometimes the guess made by the medical staff turns out not to match the intersex person's own gender identity. In many cases, an intersex people will simply identify as a man or as a woman. However, in some cases, an intersex person may identify as being neither a man nor a woman.
Cross-dressing People
This is a term used to describe people who dress, either occasionally or more regularly, in clothes associated with the opposite gender, as defined by socially accepted norms. Cross-dressing people are generally happy with the gender they were labelled at birth and do not want to permanently alter the physical characteristics of their bodies or change their legal gender. They may dress as the opposite gender for emotional satisfaction, erotic pleasure, or just because they feel more comfortable doing so. Cross-dressing men are sometimes referred to as transvestite men; however this is becoming an increasingly outdated term and may cause offence.
Androgyne People or Polygender People
These are terms used to describe people who find they do not feel comfortable thinking of themselves as simply either men or women. Instead they feel that their gender identity is more complicated to describe. Some may identify their gender as being a form of combination between a man and a woman, or alternatively as being neither. Like transsexual people, androgyne people and polygender people can experience gender dysphoria (sometimes as intensely as transsexual people do) and may sometimes at least partially transition socially and may take hormones or occasionally have some surgery done.
Acquired Gender
This is a term used in the Gender Recognition Act 2004 to mean the gender role that a person has transitioned to live their life in and which matches their self-perceived gender identity. Therefore, the acquired gender of a Male-to-Female Trans Woman is female. The acquired gender of a Female-to-Male Trans Man is male.
LGBT
This is the acronym most commonly used in Scotland to talk about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities, such as the LGBT sector (organisations involved in this area of equality and diversity), LGBT societies and LGBT rights.
Sexual orientation
This term is used to describe which gender(s) a person is emotionally and physically attracted to. For example, a person who is attracted to the opposite sex might describe their sexual orientation as straight.
Prejudice
This describes when people make their minds up about other people or a group of people on an irrational basis, without getting to know them or finding out about them first. It can mean someone who dislikes or hates a whole group of people.
Discrimination
This occurs when an individual is treated in a certain way because they belong, or are perceived to belong, to a particular group, rather than being treated as an individual. This might involve being treated more or less favourably than another group. Discrimination related to employment or to the provision of goods, facilities and services, on grounds of sexual orientation or gender reassignment, is unlawful in the UK. There are a number of different types of discrimination:
Direct discrimination
If a person is turned down for promotion because their boss doesn't like the fact that they are a lesbian, that is an example of direct discrimination.
Indirect discrimination
If an organisation placed a job advert only in a gay magazine, then this could constitute indirect discrimination as it is limiting opportunities for non- LGB people to apply.
Harassment
Harassment is unwanted conduct, related to sexual orientation or gender reassignment, which violates a person's dignity, or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them. An example is homophobic or transphobic verbal abuse in the workplace.
Victimisation
Victimisation occurs when a person complains about discrimination or harassment and is subsequently treated differently or badly due to having made the complaint.
Homophobia and transphobia can be used as umbrella terms to describe all the forms of prejudice and discrimination that are faced by LGBT people and it is this definition that is used in this report. However, discrimination can occur on a number of different levels: 54
Personal Discrimination
Homophobia and transphobia are defined as the fear and hatred of lesbians, gay men, and bisexual people, and transgender people, respectively. Homophobia and transphobia are widespread in society, resulting in such discriminatory behaviour as verbal and physical abuse, bullying in schools, and harassment at work or in the community.
Cultural Discrimination
Heterocentrism and heteronormativity are terms that describe the range of cultural beliefs, assumptions and habitual ways of thinking and acting which devalue and marginalise LGBT people and their experiences. Heterocentrism can include: the assumption that all people are or should be heterosexual: the belief that heterosexual relationships are automatically superior and more desirable than same-sex relationships: and stereotypes and myths which denigrate LGBT people.
Structural discrimination
Heterosexism is a system of discrimination which denies rights and freedoms to LGBT people, and which enshrines the superiority of heterosexuality in law and public policy. This can include unequal ages of consent or indeed the illegality of homosexuality in some countries and states, limited or denied partnership rights for same sex couples, and laws which specifically prohibit the freedoms of LGBT people.
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