Sex, gender, sexual orientation, what is each one?
Today, the discussion about gender identity, sexual orientation and other related concepts is more open. Only a few decades ago, you could only be a heterosexual man and a heterosexual woman, and the ways of being so were also reduced to a few.
However, the freedom that each person has to function in the world as they feel most comfortable is currently more recognized, and these characteristics should not be a cause of stigma or discrimination against them.
And to better understand what we are talking about when we address these notions related to sexuality, we can review some basic concepts that we should differentiate.
Sex
When we talk about sex, we refer to those biological characteristics that make a person a male or a female of the human species. If a baby is born with a vagina, it is considered female, while if it has a penis and testicles, it is considered male.
However, it should not be forgotten that there are also cases in which a newborn has indefinite genitalia, that is, neither clearly female nor clearly male, with which it is considered an intersex person and cannot be immediately classified as a boy or a girl.
Gender identity
Gender is the set of attributes that are expected of a man or a woman according to the society in which it operates. These characteristics are so clear that someone can tell whether or not their gender identity corresponds to their biological sex at birth.
For example, there are those who were born with a male biological sex, but who identify themselves as female, and vice versa. These people are called Trans (or also transsexuals or transgender).
People have also begun to talk about gender fluid people, that is, people who do not feel they belong to a single gender, but who transition from one to another at different times in their lives. Or, that they do not identify with either of the two existing genders, so they call themselves non-binary people.
Gender expression
This is a concept that stems from gender, but specifically speaks to how someone wants to be seen and recognized in the society in which they find themselves. For example, if a person identifies as a woman, they might want to express themselves as a woman who dyes their hair, wears high-heeled shoes, and wears makeup according to fashion, or they might want to express themselves as a woman who wears sports shoes and clothing, wears no makeup, and chooses fancy colors to wear in her hair.
Gender expression illustrates that there is more than one way to be a man and more than one way to be a woman. And even more so, that someone can express themselves in an intermediate term, neither a man nor a woman, because that way they feel freer.
Sexual orientation
The idea of sexual orientation refers to which people someone is attracted to, both erotically and emotionally. To put it more simply: who do you like. You can be attracted to people of the same sex, which would imply a homosexual orientation, or towards the opposite sex, which means a heterosexual orientation.
But it is also possible that you are attracted to both sexes, with which we would be talking about a bisexual orientation. Or even, you could not feel sexual attraction for anyone, these people are called asexual.
More recently, there are those who have called themselves pansexual (from the Greek “pan”, which means “everyone”) to try to explain that their attraction is guided by the qualities of a person, and not by their sex or gender identity. . This makes more sense if we consider that, as we said above, there are more and more people who call themselves non-binary, so love for them could be considered pansexual.
Prevention is for everyone
No matter what category you identify with in terms of sex, gender identity or expression, or sexual orientation, sexually transmitted infections, especially HIV, should stay out of your life.
At AHF Latin America and the Caribbean we work to bring HIV prevention services closer to all people regardless of their characteristics. Look for our offices in your country and find out about our services such as free HIV detection tests, we are in 11 countries in the region.