[Continued]

A community should be able to decide and reclaim a term. The term 'queer was not considered to be a right term or a good term to describe someone. But over a period of time, the community has reclaimed that term, and is proud about it.

And this keeps changing – today you’re learning what words are alright to use; in another year, it will change and you should be flexible to adopt that change, because languages keep on evolving. It's not stagnant.

Another point to consider is how invisibilization is exclusion: Why do people use “this community” when they’re referring to us? Why aren’t they taking the community’s name and saying “gay community”, “trans community”, “queer community”?

When we invisibilize, when we don’t take names – if we’re afraid of offending or don't know what the right term to use is – then we are excluding people.

So I’ll take you through certain terms – remember that different community members have different relationships with them.

Sex: Is it really medical?

In terms of very technical definition, it's a biological determination, which means we look at the external genitalia of the child and that is we say a child is either male or female. If the genetalia is 'ambigous' -- the term often used -- the child is labeled with 'ambiguous genitalia', 'or sex not determined' or 'sex not known' or 'intersex' or 'disorders of sex development'.

Sometimes it is not at birth, but the sex may be assigned to the child at age of one month, one year, sometimes 15 years at puberty, sometimes it is assigned to a person later on in the adulthood.

Sex is not binary, it’s not just ‘male’ and ‘female’ – there are at least 30 intersex variations, and it’s not a disease that needs correction or surgery unless the individual gives you consent for a certain procedure. It’s not for parents to decide.

Continued..