Sexual orientation and gender identity are separate and distinct concepts.
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation is a person’s attraction (a person may be attracted to someone of the opposite sex, the same sex, or both, to be unsure or questioning who they are attracted to or to not feel any sexual attraction).
Sexual orientation cannot be assumed from a person’s assigned sex at birth, gender identity or gender expression.
- Heterosexual or straight – a person who is attracted to someone of the opposite sex
- Gay – someone who is attracted to people of the same sex. Some women prefer to call themselves gay rather than lesbian, although the word gay is most often used about men
- Lesbian – a woman who is attracted to other women. Some non-binary people may also identify themselves as lesbian
- Bisexual – a person who is attracted to both men and women not necessarily in equal proportions and not necessarily at the same time
- Asexual – a person who experiences little or no sexual attraction to others
- Questioning – the process of exploring your sexual orientation and/or gender identity
Sexuality is diverse and personal to everyone. People’s understanding or experience of their sexuality may change or evolve, and their orientation and sexual identity with it.
Gender identity
Gender refers to socially constructed characteristics of women and men – such as norms, roles and relations of and between groups of women and men.
Gender identity is a person’s innate sense of their own gender whether male, female or something else, which may or may not correspond to the sex they were assigned at birth.
- Transgender – An umbrella term for people whose gender identity is not the same as or does not sit comfortably with the sex they were assigned at birth.
- Non-binary – An umbrella term for people whose gender identity doesn’t sit comfortably with ‘man’ or ‘woman’. People may identify with some aspects of binary identities, while others reject them entirely.
LGBTQIA+ support and services
There are a number of organisations that provide information and support to LGBTQIA+ people and their families in Northern Ireland including: