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Butch Traditionally, in lesbian culture, the word 'butch' refers to a person whose gender expression and traits present as typically 'masculine'. Being butch is about playing with and challenging traditional binary male and female gender roles and expressions. ​ < Back to Glossary

Survival Living through life threatening or traumatic circumstances. Many marginalised people still struggle to survive due to facing oppression, discrimination and abuse as a result of their identity. See: Mutual Aid and Discrimination. < Back to Glossary

Prejudice Prejudice can be an affective feeling towards a person based on their perceived group membership. An unfair feeling of dislike for a person or group because of race, sex, religion, etc. When prejudice is put into action, this is discrimination. It would be unreasonable to say that anyone is completely free of internalised prejudices against others. It is our duty to recognise the prejudices we hold, and to question them. It is only when we begin to question our prejudices that we can begin to dismantle them effectively. See: Bias and Discrimination. < Back to Glossary

Passing Passing is the ability of a person to be regarded as a member of an identity group or category, such as racial identity, ethnicity, caste, social class, sexual orientation, gender, religion, age and/or disability status, that is often different from their own. “Passing” can refer to a few different things within queer communities. Generally speaking, it means being perceived by people, and mainstream society as cisgender and/or heterosexual. There are a lot of different reasons why some people want to pass as cisgender. Passing is not inherently good or bad. It can be an affirming experience for some people, and a stressful, negative source of pressure for others. ​ < Back to Glossary

Bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction to more than one gender. It is sometimes wrongly assumed that bisexual means someone is only attracted to men or women, but this is an outdated perception. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity. ​ < Back to Glossary

Accountability The acceptance of responsibility for one's own actions. It implies a willingness to be transparent, allowing others to observe and evaluate one's performance. ​ < Back to Glossary

Platonic A platonic relationship is one with no romantic or sexual features, but it means more than “just friends.” According to the ancient philosopher Plato, for whom the concept is named, this bond is a type of love experienced when we identify positive qualities we feel complete us, within another person. ​ < Back to Glossary

Activist Someone who labels themselves as an ‘activist’ typically adopts a more grassroots approach and can (to an extent) hold anti-establishment mindset. Often, an activist’s lifestyle can be heavily steered by their stance on a specific issue. Furthermore, activists spur on wider political and systemic change through their actions and words. See: Grassroots. < Back to Glossary

Body Shaming The action or practice of humiliating someone by making mocking or critical comments about their body shape or size. Body shaming most-often takes place with one person inflicting shame on another, however, it can also be an internalised thought. ​ < Back to Glossary

Needs A physiological or psychological requirement for the well-being of an organism. In other words, a need is something that you can’t be okay without. This can range from food and water to human contact and socialization. The reason it's important to understand and satisfy our needs is because we feel emotional, and sometimes physical, pain when they're not being met. You may be in pain and not know why or which needs are not being fulfilled. When our needs are met, we feel happy, grateful, safe, loved, playful, alert, and calm. ​ < Back to Glossary

Pansexual Pansexuality is sexual, romantic, or emotional attraction towards people regardless of their sex or gender identity. Pansexual people may refer to themselves as 'gender-blind', asserting that gender and sex are not determining factors in their romantic or sexual attraction to others. ​ < Back to Glossary

Positionality Refers to the location of a person in the organisational structure of an institution. It considers what authority a person has, to whom they report and who reports to them, what power others have in relationship to the person and what power the person has in relationship to others. ​ < Back to Glossary

Genderqueer Denoting or relating to a person who does not identify themselves as having a fixed gender. (syn. Genderfluid) ​ < Back to Glossary

HIV HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is a virus that attacks the body's immune system. If HIV is not treated, it can lead to AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). There is currently no effective cure. Once people get HIV, they have it for life. But with proper medical care, HIV can be controlled. HIV medicine is called antiretroviral therapy, or ART. If taken as prescribed, HIV medicine reduces the amount of HIV in the body (viral load) to a very low level, which keeps the immune system working and prevents illness. This is called viral suppression. HIV medicine can even make the viral load so low that a test can’t detect it. This is called an undetectable viral load. A person with HIV who takes HIV medicine as prescribed and gets and stays virally suppressed or undetectable can stay healthy and will not transmit HIV to their sex partners. (See AIDS and PrEP) ​ < Back to Glossary

Profiting Refers to the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual's race, ethnicity, religion, national origin, or another aspect of their identity. Profiling can also be see as a form of prejudice. See: Prejudice and Discrimination. < Back to Glossary

Top Surgery A colloquial term referring to the surgery that some trans men, non-binary people and trans masculine individuals undergo to remove or reduce their breast size. ​ < Back to Glossary

Power Dynamics A "power dynamic" is the way different people or different groups of people interact with each other and where one of these sides is more powerful than the other one. ​ < Back to Glossary

Mental Health Mental health encompasses our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It relates to how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make healthy choices. Our environment and how we are treated by others has a significant effect on our mental health, as it can heavily influence the way we see ourselves. See: Minority Stress, Self-Care, Resilience and Addiction. < Back to Glossary

Homosexual An outdated term to describe a sexual orientation in which a person feels physically and emotionally attracted to people of the same sex or gender. ​ < Back to Glossary

Legal Guardian For a lot of us, our Legal Guardian, when we are under the age of 18, are our parents. However, there are many people out there whose family does not look like a stereotypical one. In some cases, one's legal guardian could be another member of the family, such as an older sibling, or another member of their family. However, there are many children who are brought up in the care system, whose legal guardian will be someone appointed by the local authority. Legal Guardians can also be considered as those who we appoint to look after our children in the event of us passing away before they are 18 years old. ​ < Back to Glossary