Media Reporting and Reference Guide on LGBT Issues

Discrimination on the grounds of gender identity <strong>and</strong> sexual orientation:
additional terms you need to know
• Biphobia: the fear, unreasonable anger, intolerance or/<strong>and</strong> hatred toward bisexuality
<strong>and</strong> bisexual people (ILGA Europe 2015).
• Cissexism/Genderism: The pervasive system of discrimination <strong>and</strong> exclusion that
oppresses people whose gender <strong>and</strong>/or gender expression falls outside of cis-normative
constructs. This system is founded on the belief that there are, <strong>and</strong> should be, only
two genders & that one’s gender or most aspects of it, are inevitably tied to assigned sex.
Within cissexism cisgender people are the dominant/agent group <strong>and</strong> trans/gender nonconforming
people are the oppressed/target group (LGBTQIA Resource Center - University
of California, Davis campus N.d.a).
• Feminism: Political stance <strong>and</strong> commitment to change the political position of women
<strong>and</strong> promote gender equality, based on the thesis that women are subjugated because
of their gendered body, i.e. sex (European Institute for Gender Equality N.d.).
• Gender equality: means that women <strong>and</strong> men have equal conditions for realizing
their full human rights <strong>and</strong> for contributing to, <strong>and</strong> benefiting from, economic, social,
cultural <strong>and</strong> political development. Gender equality is therefore the equal valuing
by society of the similarities <strong>and</strong> the differences of men <strong>and</strong> women, <strong>and</strong> the roles
they play. It is based on women <strong>and</strong> men being full partners in their home, their
community <strong>and</strong> their society (UNESCO 2003 April).
• Heteronormativity: refers to cultural <strong>and</strong> social practices where men <strong>and</strong> women are
led to believe that heterosexuality is the only conceivable sexuality. It implies that
heterosexuality is the only way of being “normal” (ILGA Europe 2015).
• Homophobia: fear, unreasonable anger, intolerance or/<strong>and</strong> hatred directed towards
homosexuality (ILGA Europe 2015).
• Patriarchy: Literally ‘rule by the father’ but more generally it refers to a social situation
where men are dominant over women in wealth, status <strong>and</strong> power. Patriarchy is
associated with a set of ideas, a ‘patriarchal ideology’ that acts to explain <strong>and</strong> justify
this dominance <strong>and</strong> attributes it to inherent natural differences between men <strong>and</strong>
women. Sociologists tend to see patriarchy as a social product <strong>and</strong> not as an outcome
of innate differences between the sexes <strong>and</strong> they focus attention on the way that
gender roles in a society affect power differentials between men <strong>and</strong> women (Online
Dictionary of the Social Sciences N.d.a)
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