1. Gender Identity and Sexual
Orientation
By:Nathan Dorval

2. Gender identity and key terms
• Gender Identity-How one identifies; a person’s innate, deeply felt psychological identification as a
woman, man, both, neither, or somewhere in between. Your gender identity may or may not
correspond to your external body or as sex assigned at birth.
• Gender expression-how one looks; the physical manifestation of a person’s gender identity, usually
expressed through clothing, mannerisms, and chosen names.
• Gender nonconforming-refers to people whose gender expression is neither clearly feminine nor
clearly masculine, or does not conform to society’s expectations to gender roles.
• Genderqueer-someone who blurs, rejects, or otherwise transgresses gender norms; also used as a
term for someone who rejects the two-gender system.
• Transgender-an umbrella term referring to people whose gender identity and/or gender expression
does not fit their assigned sex at birth for example drag kings and drag queens do consider
themselves transgender but cross-dressers do not
• Transsexual-a person who lives and/or identifies as a different sex from the one assigned at birth.
• Trans man- a person who was born biologically female and identifies and portrays his gender as
male
• Trans woman- a person who was born biologically male and identifies and portrays her gender as
female
• Cisgender-refers to people whose gender identity and presentation fit traditional norms for the sex
they were assigned at birth
• Cissexual- a person who lives and identifies with the sex assigned at birth.

3. Main points society
• Lesbians are more likely to engage in behaviors such as
smoking and drinking alcohol that put them at greater risk
for cancers
• Stresses that are associated with long-term concealment of
sexual identity and many years of exposure to
discrimination ca affect health negatively
• Coming out is the process of accepting and affirming our
sexual orientation or gender identity and deciding how
open we will be about it
• Fat women face size discrimination within both queer and
straight communities. People may assume we’re queer
because we can’t find a man, or that we’re asexual

4. Bold ideas
• In most places in the United States, it is legal to fire
employees because they are trans, lesbian, gay or
bisexual, though some states and municipalities have
enacted civil rights protections based on sexual
orientation and, in some cases, gender identity and
expression. At the national level, the Employment Non-
Discrimination Act which would prohibit discrimination
against employees on the basis of sexual orientation or
gender identity, has been introduced to almost every
congress since 1994 but as of 2011 has yet to pass.
• Maybe people should try to learn to accept people
who they are, and see that firing someone for being
gay, lesbian, or bisexual, is wrong.

5. Striking perspectives
• A paragraph asked if my school is LBGTQ welcoming The
college is but I remembered that my high school wasn’t.
why? I know they allowed LBGTQ students in I was friends
with them but I never saw or heard of any clubs supporting
them, is it really welcoming to LBGTQ if they accept them
but don’t show any way of support? People need support
especially in high school. I really think that all schools
should have a program to support these kids. I think people
should go to the program if you’re straight even better you
can try to see what they have to deal with, because of
society. Straight people will never understand the fear and
pain of coming out, but trying is a big step to understanding
and accepting.

6. I agree
• The book talks about Coming out day which is
October 11th in the United states I agree that
there is a day where people can march the
streets proudly saying they are LBGTQ I hope
that someday they can do it all the time and
no one will judge them, they will accept them.

7. Points that stuck out
• The American psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)
say that transsexuals have a gender identity
disorder. Some prefer the term Gender Dysphoria
because it better describes the feeling of being
born in a body that doesn’t match who you are
inside. Some people find both stigmatizing.
• In order to have access to surgeries medical
practice requires a diagnosis of GID or gender
dysphoria.

8. One quote that jumped at me
• “I have known I was interested in both sexes since I was six or
seven. But, due to the conservative Catholic home I was raised in
, my family did not accept same-sex relationships. In my
twenties, when I started college, I began to start to explore
women, and in my thirties I started to act on it. I love being with
another woman; the connection is something I can’t put into words.
When I talk with my partner about being bi, he thinks it’s just a
“phase,” although I’ve told him many times that I enjoy being with a
woman. So now He prefers not to talk about me being bi. I can feel
myself distancing myself from him for not being open to how I feel.
When he said “It’s just a phase,” it was like he was doubting who I
am. It hurt.”
this quote jumped out at me because it shows how insensitive a
person can be towards others, This woman is bi and her partner just
says it’s a phase, he’s putting being bisexual in the same group as
young children thinking everything is theirs.

9. Key terms continued
• Heterosexism is the assumption- in individuals
and in public policy- that heterosexuality is the
only normal orientation.
• Homophobia is fear and hatred of people who
are attracted to the same sex
• Transphobia, fear and hatred of gender-
variant people.

10. Relevance to practice
• Heterosexism, homophobia, and transphobia
lead to laws and practices that deny LBGTQ
people legal, religious, and social privileges
that heterosexual and cisgender take for
granted.
• This is relevant to my practice being a CJ major
because the defense of marriage act.

11. Discussion question
• “The time interval between Pap tests (for cervical
cancer) is almost three times longer for lesbians than
for heterosexual women. Cervical Cancer screening
rates are lower for lesbians compared with
heterosexual women, raising concerns that lesbians are
not adequately diagnosed or treated.
•
My question is why is this happening, why are lesbians
not getting the same interval as heterosexual women?
Is there anyway to prevent the long interval? Is this a
problem for other woman are heterosexual woman
experiencing a delay to but not as much as lesbian
women?