Glossary
Asylum seeker
According to SOGICA: “A person who has fled from his or her own country due to fear of persecution and, having applied for protection in another country, his or her request for sanctuary has yet to be processed. A person remains an asylum seeker until his or her claim has been duly assessed and he or she has been granted (or refused) refugee status or other alternative kind of protection.”
Bisexual
According to ORAM glossary: “A person who experiences sexual and/or romantic attraction to persons of the same and a different sex or gender.”
Gay
According to ORAM glossary: “A person who experiences sexual and/or romantic attraction only or primarily to persons of the same sex or gender. The term historically referred primarily to men but is used today by people of all genders as a self-descriptor”
Gender
According to ORAM glossary: “The social, cultural and psychological qualities that are associated with being a man or a woman. This can encompass personal identity and expression as well as societal, structural and cultural norms.”
Gender expression
According to ORAM glossary: “External characteristics and behaviors that may be perceived as masculine, feminine and/or neutral based on societal and cultural norms. These are often expressed through clothing, hair, body language, etc.”
Gender identity
According to ORAM glossary: “A person’s deeply felt internal and individual experience of gender (e.g. of being a man, a woman, in-between, neither or something else), which may or may not correspond to societal expectations based on their sex assigned at birth.”
Intersectionnality
Intersectionnality is an analytical concept developed by Kimberlé Crenshaw to designate a prism through which to apprehend the multiplicity of identities with an emphasis on the overlap (“intersection”) between various factors. It enables the apprehension of complex phenomena in their realities, considering the intersections and the resulting combination of factors instead of solely adding them up. “1+1 = 3 and not 2”. In this sense, intersectionnality is a useful tool to consider discriminations, such as those suffered by LGBTIQ+ refugees. Indeed, besides those they have to face because they belong to a sexual or gender minority and those they suffer because they belong to a minority in the arrival country, they also face additional discriminations because they are at the intersection of these factors, being LGBTIQ+ refugees; they face discriminations they wouldn’t face if they were “only” LGBTIQ+ or “only” refugees.
Intersex
According to ORAM glossary: “A person born with reproductive or sexual anatomy, physiology and/or chromosomal patterns that do not fit conventional definitions of male or female.”
Lesbian
According to ORAM glossary: “A woman who experiences sexual and/or romantic attraction only or primarily to other women.”
LGBTIQ+ people
LGBTIQ+ is the acronym designating Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenders, Intersex and Queer people. The symbol + aims at including other sexual orientations (e.g.: asexuality) or gender identities or expressions.
Queer
According to ORAM glossary: “A person whose sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression diverges from societal expectations. This may include people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and other nonconforming orientations and identities. Once considered primarily derogatory, many have reclaimed the term as neutral or positive.”
Refugee
According to the 1951 Geneva COnvention (art. 1): “A person who, owing to well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it. (…)”
For this project, we use the term “refugee” in its broader meaning, including any person who fits this definition, irrespective of her/his legal status with a focus on asylum seekers and beneficiaries from international protection.
Sex
According to ORAM glossary: “A legal, anatomical and/or biological distinction, typically of being male or female, and sometimes of being intersex or another status.”
Sexual characteristics
Biological characteristics (genes, chromosomes, hormones, …) determining the sex of a person on the Female – Male spectrum.
Sexual orientation
According to ORAM glossary : “A person’s sexual and/or romantic attraction to persons of a different sex or gender, the same sex or gender, more than one sex or gender, or to no persons of any sex or gender. Typical examples of sexual orientations include heterosexual/straight, lesbian, gay, bisexual and asexual.”
SOGIESC
SOGIESC is the acronym designating sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sexual characteristics.
Transgender
According to ORAM glossary: “An umbrella term for people whose gender identity differs from societal expectations of the sex they were assigned at birth. Also: “trans” for short is sometimes seen as an even more inclusive term.”
