Basic Concepts

When our child first opens up to us, many of us may have thought about sexual diversity for the first time in our lives. Most of the fears of families about this issue are generally caused by the unknown. Below, we have shared some basic information about LGBTI+ issues.

There are four basic elements that make up sexuality.

1. Biological Gender: It describes the sexual organs identified with which gender at birth. Individuals whose bodily gender cannot be determined easily due to the developmental structure of the sexual organs are called intersex.

2. Gender: It describes compliance with cultural norms that determine masculine or feminine behaviors.

3. Gender Identity: It tells which gender the person feels himself or herself to be. It is independent of bodily gender, but often overlaps with bodily gender. There are transgender individuals in cases where they do not overlap.

Transgender: A person whose physical gender and gender identity do not match. Transgender people who feel like women are called trans women, and transgender people who feel like men are called trans men.

4. Sexual Orientation: It tells about which gender the person desires. There are three defined sexual orientations:

Homosexual: It is the state of being romantic and sexually attracted to people of one’s own gender. Gay women are called lesbian, and gay men are called gay.

Heterosexual: It is the state of being romantic and sexually attracted to people of the opposite sex.

Bisexual: It is the state of being romantic and sexually attracted to people of both sexes.

Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation are separate concepts. Trans people are also not automatically gay, or gay people are not automatically trans people. On the other hand, there are rare people who are both transgender and gay at the same time.

LGBTI+ is an umbrella term describing the diversity of sexual identity, which means Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex and other sexual identities.

For detailed information, you can refer to the Resources section.