Inhalants
Inhalants are substances that induce psychoactive effects when inhaled. They can be consumed through oral or nasal inhalation via a container, can, or rag. Some popular inhalants include nitrous oxide, gasoline/other volatile solvents, and aerosol. Inhalants tend to be very potent due to the method of consumption, which makes them prone to overuse. Many inhalants are also inherently toxic to the central nervous system.
Inhalant abuse has a variety of negative health effects. The act of using inhalants prevents fresh air from entering the lungs, which could lead to brain damage due to a lack of oxygen. Some symptoms of this are slurred speech, memory loss, inhibited motor abilities, and nausea. Complications due to inhalant abuse can even result in death. Regular inhalant use could cause muscle and weight loss, depression, fatigue, and liver damage.
Intersectionality
Intersectionality studies how different demographic characteristics such as gender, race, or sexuality can affect the opportunities and privileges a person can have. The concept was first coined in 1989 by Kimberlé Crenshaw, a Black female law student at the time who wanted to express the unique difficulties Black women face that white women do not. While the term itself originated in 1989, intersectionality was a palpable reality in the lives of Black women for centuries prior.
Today, intersectionality has been expanded to accommodate more than the nexus of race and gender. The conversation has begun to also bring focus to the privileges granted by class, sexuality, or conformance to cisnormativity. Proponents of the theory hope to illuminate the struggles associated with having overlapping minority identities.
Intersex
Someone who is intersex has reproductive organs or sexual anatomy that lies outside of the male/female binary. They might have traits of both male and female or neither. Some people may have their intersex traits apparent from birth, during puberty, or later in life. In multiple cases, intersex traits are only found post-mortem during an autopsy. Some traits that indicate intersexuality are genital size, chromosomal variation outside of XX and XY, and the presence of multiple sexual organs.
Being intersex was previously known as having a disorder of sexual development (DSD), but this terminology is antiquated. Intersexuality is not a disorder; the concept of intersexuality only exists because our rigid sexual binary-based terminology does not account for biological variation in sexual organs. Since intersex people can also have chromosomal differences that blur the lines between male and female, the classification is socially constructed and applied on a case-by-case basis.