Gender Identity & Gender Based Violence

Various Gender Identities:

1. Heterosexual: A person who is sexually attracted to people of the opposite sex.
2. Homosexual: A person who is sexually attracted to people of their own sex.
3. Bisexual: A person who is sexually attracted to both men and women.
4. Transgender: Transgender is a term used to describe people whose gender identity differs from the sex the doctor marked on their birth certificate.
5. Cis gender: A term used to describe people who, for the most part, identify as the gender they were assigned at birth.
6. Intersex: A general term used for a variety of conditions in which a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male.
7. Transsexual: A person who emotionally and psychologically feels that they belong to the opposite sex.
   Ally: Someone who is a friend, advocate, and/or activist for LGBTQ people.
8. Androgynous: Term used to describe an individual whose gender expression and/or identity may be neither distinctly “female” nor “male,” usually based on appearance.
9. Asexual: A sexual orientation generally characterized by not feeling sexual attraction or desire for partnered sexuality.
10. Pansexual: A person not limited in sexual choice with regard to biological sex, gender, or gender identity.
11. Gender Neutral: This term is used to describe facilities that any individual can use regardless of their gender.

How is Gender Based Violence carried out?

• Cultural beliefs and norms based on the devaluation of women
• Legitimized, obscured or denied by familial and social institutions
• Abusive acts are typically characterized as horrible or tragic events
• Resulting from bad luck or bad judgment
• Being in the wrong place at the wrong time Gender violence is a historical and universal problem. It is often experienced in the context of additional oppressions based on:
  • Race
  • Ethnicity
  • Age
  • Sexual orientation
  • Gender identity
  • Type of labour performed
  • Level of education
  • Class position
  • Disability
  • Immigration or refugee status.

Violence against women, boys & girls can occur across their whole life-course. It creates an atmosphere of physical, sexual, economic, and emotional insecurity that establish a climate of fear and result in severe physical and psychological injuries. It is the most extreme expression of sexism and misogyny; accompanied by gendered harms that leave women and girls and boys bearing the socio-cultural burdens of shame, humiliation, and victim blaming.