This document discusses gender identity and sexual orientation. It defines key terms like sex, gender, gender identity, transgender, genderqueer, and sexual orientation. It explains that gender identity refers to one's internal sense of gender, which may or may not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. It also distinguishes between gender identity and sexual orientation. Sexual orientation refers to who one is attracted to, such as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or straight. The document provides information on coming out, homophobia, and advocacy organizations working to promote acceptance.

1. Gender
Identity &
Sexual
Orientation

2. Challenging Sex & Gender
Sex is commonly understood to be
based on a person's genitals
(clitoris,vagina,penis) and
reproductive organs
(ovaries,uterus,testicles)
Gender is often understood to refer
to gender identity or roles and
expressions.

3. 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 sex
assigned at birth,
meaning the sex
listed on your
birth certificate.

4. Genderqueer:
Someone who blurs, rejects, or otherwise
transgresses gender norms; also used as a term
for someone who rejects the two-gender system.
Terms used similarly include gender bender, bigender, beyond binary, third gender, gender fluid
(moving freely between genders)
“Recently, I have been in the process of informing others of
my true gender identity. What I am is androgynous- both
man and woman. What my birth sex is, is irrelevant.”

5. Transsexual
A person who lives and/or identifies as a
different sex from the one assigned at birth.
Julia Serani uses the term to “refer to people
who struggle with a subconscious
understanding or intuition that there is
something 'wrong' with the sex they were
assigned at birth and/or who feel that they
should have been born as or wish they could
be the other sex.”

6. Process of Changing
●
●
Modifying
names and/or
use of
pronouns
Hormone
therapy
●
●
Clothing,
make up, and
mannerisms
to live as the
preferred
gender
Surgery

7. “There is no doubt that
from very early on I knew
something was wrong. I
was a girl, yet my parents
named me John Joseph
and insisted that I was a
boy.”

8. Confusing Terms
●
●
Many people
confuse gender
identity and
sexual orientation
Sexual
orientation is
about who
attracts us.

9. Whom We Are Attracted To
●
●
Bisexual: describes
people who are
romantically/sexually
attracted to both men
and women.
Gay/Homosexual:
describes men who
are romantically
/sexually attracted to
other men.
●
●
Lesbian: refers to
women who are
romantically/ sexually
attracted to women.
Straight/heterosexual:
refers to women who
are romantically/
sexually attracted to
men and men who
are attracted to
women.

10. Historically Negative Terms
●
Queer
●
●
Dyke
●
●
Fag
Homo
Lesbo

11. National Coming Out Day
Whether you're lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender, or straight,
National Coming Out Day is
th
October 11 in the United States.

12. Homophobia is the fear and
hatred of people who are
attracted to the same sex.
“The internalized homophobia- the nagging fears
of incompetence, being too different, being
unlovable...”

13. In many places in the United States and
around the world, activists are challenging
homophobia and transphobia and are
achieving positive changes.
●
The Think Before You Speak Campaign
thinkb4youspeak.com
●
●
The National Black Justice Coalition
nbjc.org
The Policy Institute of the National Gay and
Lesbian Task Force
thetaskforce.org

14. Which category do you identify/define yourself?