Glossary

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.

Lesbian

Lesbian is a term used to describe a woman who is only sexually or romantically attracted to other women. The term lesbian can also be used for nonbinary or genderqueer individuals if they so choose. It is not required that these nonbinary or genderqueer people must be assigned female at birth or even that they are feminine-presenting.

The word lesbian was first used in the 16th century to refer to people who hailed from the Greek island Lesbos. Of these people included Sappho, a female homosexual poet who often wrote of her love for women. As a result, she birthed both the terms lesbian and sapphic (the capacity for a woman to be attracted to other women). Sapphic is not quite the same as lesbian; for example, bisexual and pansexual women who are attracted to women are sapphic but not necessarily lesbian.

LGBTQIA+

 LGBTQIA+ stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, Intersex, Asexual/Ally. The plus is there to include other gender or sexual identities not included in the acronym, like pansexual or nonbinary people. The purpose of the acronym is to be as inclusive as possible while acknowledging queer history. 

In some cases, the acronym may be displayed as LGBTQIAA+. This is done to include both asexuals and allies explicitly, as the inclusion of allyship promotes the importance of non-queer advocates in securing queer rights. This helps promote unity between communities with differing cultures and perspectives, contributing to the purpose of the acronym being created in the first place.