LGBTQI stands short for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex. It is an umbrella term that is used to refer to the community as a whole. To be LGBTQI often means to challenge heteronormativity, and rethink gender and sex roles.
Lesbian or Gay means people who fall in love with or are sexually attracted by persons with the same gender as themselves. All people have the right to define themselves.
Bisexual means people who fall in love with or are sexually attracted to people, regardless of gender. All people have the right to define themselves.
Trans person is an umbrella term that aims to include the wide variety of identities, groups, and persons that use the term trans to identify themselves. The common factor for trans persons is that a person’s gender identity and/or gender expression does not match the legal gender that was assigned at birth, and which was determined by that person’s physical appearance and was interpreted at that time. The term trans person includes people who want to change their body and change legal gender (transexual), people who do not want to be either a woman or a man (for example bigender, genderqueer, non-binary, intergender), people who use clothes and other attributes that are usually seen as typical for a different gender than the one that was assigned (crossdresser, transvestite), artists who exaggerate gender-coded attributes when they perform (drag) and people who do not want to, cannot or think that it is not important to define themselves in terms of gender (for example agender, non-binary, neutrois, nongender). Trans has no relation to sexuality, it relates to gender identity. A trans person could be homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual, asexual, or something else.
Queer is a difficult term to define. It may refer to identity, sexuality, or sexual practice. For example, if you do not want to conform to hetero norms or use another term to describe yourself instead of a specific gender affiliation or sexual orientation, you can use queer.
Intersex stands for a variety of conditions in which a person is born with reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male.
Asexual means people who do not feel interested in having sex or do not feel sexually attracted to others.
Self-definition is how you identify yourself in the matrix of complex interpersonal and social roles. This term is very important for LGBTQI people when it comes to identifying one's gender identity, sexual orientation, or pronouns. Every LGBTQI person has to go through a specific process of self-identification and self-discovery. This happens because the societal norms are still the hetero norms. So, the term is an important reminder that you always have the right to choose for yourself how you want to identify. Your self-definition can change over time, and you also have the right to not label yourself at all.
Pronoun means, for example, he, she, and they – the term someone wants to be called when they are talked about in the third person (for example that person is kind, I like them). Pronouns can be linked to your gender/gender identity, but they do not need to be. If you are not certain about someone’s pronoun, you can ask in a separate conversation (for example: ”Which pronoun do you have?/Which pronoun do you want me to use with you”).
Norms are unwritten rules, ideas, and ideals that control how one is expected to be, live, and look. The hetero norm means that in our society there are a lot of unspoken rules, beliefs, and expectations that limit how and who one may be in terms of gender and sexuality. Among other things, the hetero norm creates a clear expectation for all people to be either men or women and that throughout life they should identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. According to the hetero norm, men must also be male or masculine, women must be female or feminine, and men and women are expected to fall in love with and be attracted to each other. Gender and sexuality are closely linked in this way. As norm-breakers, the group of LGBTQ people is thus disadvantaged by the hetero norm, but in different ways. Norms are connected with power structures in society and can be expressed on several different levels. At an individual level in relationships and in social interaction, at an institutional level such as in the workplace or in welfare, and at a structural level such as legislation that creates a lack of rights or unequal conditions.
Hetero norms are unwritten rules in society that describe the expectations on how a person should behave, live and look. These norms prefer heterosexuality over homosexuality and cis-gender over transgender identities. They affect everyone, and they set out rules, expectations, and ideas about gender, love, and sexuality. Heteronormativity demands that men are only masculine and women are only feminine. It restricts and prevents people from exploring and discovering themselves. This preference negatively affects anyone who does not belong to these categories.
Cis norms there are several norms that are related to the hetero norm. One of them is the cis norm, that one is expected to be a cis person. Cisperson is, very simply, the one who is not transgender. Quite simply a person whose body, legal gender, gender identity, and gender expression are linked in a linear way. A person who was born with a snippet and then got a "woman" registered in the population register, who sees and has always seen himself as a girl/woman and who other people perceive as a girl/woman is, for example, a cis girl / cis woman. "Cisperson" is a relatively new word. It is a word that is good to have as it describes people who follow the norm. Words are needed not only for those who break the norms but also to talk about those who follow the norms. Many cispersons have never even thought about having a gender identity.
Sexual orientation consists of five different parts:
- sexual interest-refers to who you are turned on by and with whom you want to have sex
- romantic interest-who you fall in love with
Some people might fall in love with everyone, regardless of gender, but only want to have sex with people with the same gender as themselves. Some people are asexual, which means that they are not interested in sex, but at the same time are bi-romantic – meaning that they fall in love with people regardless of gender.
The two latter, sexual and romantic practices are intertwined. It is a question of how you choose to organize your relationships. Some people might have several sexual partners and one romantic relationship, or vice versa.
Gender consists of four different parts:
Gender confirmation therapy is a collective term for different methods of changing the body so that it conforms with gender identity. This could be, for example, hormone therapy, different types of surgery, permanent hair removal or voice and communication training.
