● Lesbian : A woman whose enduring physical, romantic, or emotional attraction is to other women. Some lesbians may prefer to identify as gay (adj.) or as gay women. Avoid identifying lesbians as “homosexuals,” a derogatory term ● LGBTQ : Acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer. Sometimes, when the Q is seen at the end of LGBT, it can also mean questioning. LGBT and/or GLBT are also often used. The term “gay community” should be avoided, as it does not accurately reflect the diversity of the community and LGBTQ community is preferred. ● Queer : An adjective used by some people, particularly younger people, whose sexual orientation is not exclusively heterosexual (e.g., queer person, queer woman). Typically, for those who identify as queer, the terms lesbian, gay, and bisexual are perceived to be too limiting and/or fraught with cultural connotations they feel do not apply to them. Some people may use queer, or more commonly genderqueer, to describe their gender identity and/or gender expression. Once considered a pejorative term, queer has been reclaimed by some LGBT people to describe themselves; however, it is not a universally accepted term even within the LGBT community. When Q is seen at the end of LGBT, it typically means queer and, less often, questioning. ● Sex : The classification of a person as male or female. At birth, infants are assigned a sex, usually based on the appearance of their external anatomy, and that is written on the birth certificate. A person’s sex is a combination of bodily characteristics including: chromosomes, hormones, internal and external reproductive organs, and secondary sex characteristics (Glaad, 2016). harassed or disrespected in public includes restaurants, hotels, and even in massage businesses (Haines, 2016). In developing a practice that includes all clients there are important areas that must be avoided including: misgendering, misnaming, making body assumptions, and outing (Haines, 2016). Misgendering Misgendering someone is awkward at best, and potentially dangerous at worst. And it does not just happen to LGBTQ individuals. For example, a woman with facial hair or even just sporting a short hair cut or unisex clothing is enough to get labeled incorrectly. Misgendering on intake forms: In a massage environment, that labeling starts with intake forms. Male or female? For many people, this can feel like being asked if they are an orange or a parakeet and there is no correct answer. How do they respond? The way they look? The reproductive organs they have? What it says on their birth certificate? What it used to say on their birth certificate? A quick fix like an “other” option can go a long way or might consider doing away with the question altogether. Misgendering with pronouns: In English, pronouns for human beings are traditionally limited to only two sets: he/him/his, and she/her/hers. For whatever reason, we feel like gender is so important that it is an inherent part of our grammar, while age, career, and preferred style of massage are not. In some languages, nobody has gendered pronouns. In other languages everything from chairs to casseroles are assigned a gender. But in any language, being called something you are not would be offensive and hurtful (Haines, 2016). A massage therapist must address the issue of how to address clients appropriately: ● The therapist can ask the person what pronouns they prefer, would be awkward in the beginning, but avoids the worse case scenario of offending the individual.
not use a hyphen in the word “bisexual,” and only capitalize bisexual when used at the beginning of a sentence. ● Gay : The adjective used to describe people whose enduring physical, romantic, or emotional attractions are to people of the same sex (e.g., gay man, gay people). Sometimes lesbian (n. or adj.) is the preferred term for women. Avoid identifying gay people as “homosexuals” an outdated term considered derogatory and offensive to many lesbian and gay people. ● Gender expression : External manifestations of gender, expressed through a person’s name, pronouns, clothing, haircut, behavior, voice, and/or body characteristics. Society identifies these cues as masculine and feminine, although what is considered masculine or feminine changes over time and varies by culture. Typically, transgender people seek to align their gender expression with their gender identity, rather than the sex they were assigned at birth. ● Gender identity : A person’s internal, deeply held sense of their gender. For transgender people, their own internal gender identity does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. Most people have a gender identity of man or woman (or boy or girl). For some people, their gender identity does not fit neatly into one of those two choices. Gender identity is not visible to others. ● Intersex : An umbrella term describing people born with reproductive or sexual anatomy and/or a chromosome pattern that can’t be classified as typically male or female. Those variations are also sometimes referred to as Differences of Sex Development (DSD.) Avoid the outdated and derogatory term “hermaphrodite.” While some people can have an intersex condition and also identify as transgender, the two are separate and should not be conflated. Sexual orientation The term for an individual’s enduring physical, romantic and/ or emotional attraction to members of the same and/or opposite sex, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and heterosexual, straight, orientations. Avoid the term “sexual preference,” which is seen as offensive because it is used to suggest that being gay, lesbian, or bisexual is voluntary and therefore “curable.” People need not have had specific sexual experiences to know their own sexual orientation; in fact, they need not have had any sexual experience at all. Transgender (adj.) An umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/ or gender expression differs from what is typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth. People under the transgender umbrella may describe themselves using one or more of a wide variety of terms including transgender. Some of those terms are defined below. Use the descriptive term preferred by the person. Many transgender people are prescribed hormones by their doctors to bring their bodies into alignment with their gender identity. Some undergo surgery as well but not all transgender people can or will take those steps. A transgender identity is not dependent upon physical appearance or medical procedures. Transsexual (adj.) An older term that originated in the medical and psychological communities. Still preferred by some people who have permanently changed, or seek to change, their bodies through medical interventions, including but not limited to hormones and or surgeries. Unlike transgender, transsexual is not an umbrella term. Many transgender people do not identify as transsexual and prefer the word transgender. It is best to ask which term a person prefers. If preferred, use as an adjective: transsexual woman or transsexual man. To create a practice that cares for all clients it must promote an atmosphere that is welcoming, accepting and comfortable regardless of orientation. LGBTQ individuals often experience workplace harassment or discrimination as well as being verbally
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Book Code: MTX1323
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