cartoon of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual & transgender young people

Working with gay, lesbian, bi-sexual & transgender young people

Definition

Here are some definitions which may be useful:

Bi-sexual = being sexually attracted to both sexes

Gay = a male homosexual person. Sometimes this term is used to describe both lesbians and gay men.

Heterosexual = being sexually attracted to people of the opposite sex

Homosexual = being sexually attracted to people of the same sex

Intersex = a person who is born with both male and female hormones and genitalia. Intersex persons were formally referred to as hermaphrodites.

Lesbian = a female homosexual person

Transgender = a person who is biologically one gender, but strongly identifies as the opposite gender. A transgender person will often adopt the clothing and identity of their preferred gender.

To make this manual easier to read we have used the terms gay and lesbian to refer to young people who are gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender.

Demographics

It is generally believed that 1 in 10 people are gay or lesbian. 8

An Australian survey found that 8-10% of young people identified as not exclusively heterosexual. 13

This means that in an average high school of 1000 students, around 100 young people may be gay or lesbian.

Some of the young people who use your service will be gay or lesbian. You may or may not know which young people because they may not have "come out" or told you about it. You cannot tell if someone is gay or lesbian by the way they look or sound.

Terminology

There are a range of terms used to refer to people who are not heterosexual such as people of diverse sexualities or GLBTI (gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender and intersex) or same sex attracted for gay men and lesbians.

The terms gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (as outlined in the definition section above) are the most commonly used and accepted terms.

Don't use other terms or slang words as these may cause offence.