Sexuality

Sexuality is a combination of people's sex, their sexual feelings for others, their feelings about themselves as sexual beings, their sexual orientation and their sexual behaviour.

Exploring and discovering your sexuality can be confusing, exciting, difficult and wonderful. Sexuality is a complex issue and this topic alone will not cover every aspect, so make sure you check the resources at the end too.

Defining the meaning of words

Note: The meanings and uses of many of these terms are in a state of flux, that is they change from time to time.

Sex - whether a person is biologically male or female.

Gender - the cultural and social behaviours for men and women related to sex, for example what men learn about how to behave, what clothes men wear and what women learn about how to behave and dress. These are different in different places in the world.

Sexual Identity - is sometimes called gender identity and usually means the sense of belonging that a person feels to the male or female sex.

Sexual Orientation - means a person's emotional and sexual feelings for members of the opposite sex, same sex or both.

Sexuality - is the combination of people's sex, their sexual feelings for others, their feelings about themselves as sexual beings, their sexual orientation and their sexual behaviour.

Same sex attracted – people who are emotionally and sexually attracted to the same sex.

Heterosexual - people who are emotionally and sexually attracted to the other sex.

Homosexual - people who are emotionally and sexually attracted to the same sex - although this word more commonly refers to men.

Homophobia – the irrational fear or hatred of someone who is gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. Homophobia is a form of discrimination.

Gay - this usually refers to men being emotionally and sexually attracted to other men.

Lesbian - women who are emotionally and sexually attracted to other women.

Bisexual - women or men who are emotionally and sexually attracted to both sexes.

Transgender – the use of this term is constantly changing, however, it is an umbrella term that describes people whose gender identity does not match their biological sex, ie. male or female.

Transvestite or cross-dressing – someone who wears the clothing of another gender, but typically does not want to change sexes.

Intersex (previously termed hermaphrodite) – someone born with full or partial internal and/or external genitalia from each of the two sexes. Usually if someone is born with characteristics of both sexes they are assigned a sex. When this happens people can often grow up with a sense of loss or confusion.

GLBTIQ – stands for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer. It is used to try and be inclusive of all of these 'alternative' sexualities.

Note: The terms homosexual and heterosexual are clinical terms, and many young people prefer to use the terms: gay, lesbian, bisexual or more recently, same-sex attracted. Some young GLBTIQ people have 'reclaimed' or started using slang words to describe their sexuality that could be considered 'put-downs'. Such words include queer, faggot, dyke, lemon, and poof.

Be careful if you use these words that you are not offending anyone. Not all gay, lesbian and bisexual people are comfortable with using these words in a positive way.

Another word for heterosexual is straight.