My Life Is Too Dark To See the Light | Page 6

Glossary Gender identity: Refers to a person’s internal, deeply felt sense of being male, female, or something other or in-between. Gender expression: Refers to the external characteristics and behaviors which societies define as “masculine” or “feminine”—including such attributes as dress, appearance, mannerisms, speech patterns and social behavior. LGBT: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. Men who have sex with men (MSM): Men who engage in sexual behavior with other men, but do not necessarily identify as “gay”, “homosexual”, or “bisexual”. Sex work: The commercial exchange of sexual services between consenting adults. Sexual orientation: A person’s sexual and emotional attraction to members of the same gender, the opposite gender, or both genders. Transgender: Transgender is an umbrella term used to describe people whose gender identity, one’s inner sense of being male or female, differs from their assigned or presumed sex at birth. Transgender women: People who are born male but identify themselves as female. Transgender men: People who are born female but identify themselves as male. Transsexual: A person who seeks to undergo or has undergone bodily modification such as sex reassignment surgery, so that their physical sex corresponds to their felt gender identity. Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS)/ Gender affirming surgery: Surgical interventions to change one’s body so as to resemble a body of the opposite sex as closely as possible. 02 0