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Glossary of terms: sexual orientation and gender identity
General messaging for why we collect sociodemographic data
| Sociodemographic Question | Why we collect this information? |
|---|---|
Pronouns Q: My pronoun is: | Asking this question can help us to make sure we and all of our service providers are addressing youth based on how they self-identify throughout their time accessing YWHO services. |
Language: Q: I feel most comfortable receiving services in: | Asking this question can help us plan for any interpretation support, connect youth with a service provider that speaks their preferred language (if possible), and can connect youth to any newcomer and/or settlement programs and services if relevant and of interest. |
Centre Q: I found about this centre though: | Asking this question can help us understand how youth are finding out about our hub and services. We want to be able to increase our promotion and outreach strategies so that we can reach and provide services to more youth within the region. |
Immigration Q: I was born in Canada: | Asking this question can help us understand the experiences of newcomers to Canada, including what types of supports might be helpful. Many hubs have newcomer and settlement workers and programs specifically catered to newcomer and/or immigrant youth. We collect this information to be able to provide you with the best possible resources and care. |
Gender: Q: I identify as: | Having this information can help us plan for appropriate programming, staffing, training, and service provision. It helps us plan to make sure that all youth feel comfortable in our space. We can use this data to understand the experiences of gender diverse youth we work with. |
Sexual Identity/Orientation Q: I identify as: | We don’t want to assume youth’s sexual identity when we provide them with care and services. We can look at this data to ensure that all youth are getting the best care possible. |
Race, Culture & Ethnicity Q: How would you describe your ethnic or cultural background? | Having this information can help us plan for appropriate cultural programming, staffing, training, and service provision. |
Disability Q: Do you have any of the following disabilities? | We collect this information for us to understand the types of accommodation we need to plan for to improve access and provide better care. |
Housing Q: I currently live: | Knowing a youth’s living situation allows service providers to make connections to available and appropriate supports in the community, and housing supports at the hub, if that is something you are interested in. |
Student Status Q: I am a student: | We collect this information because it allows us to better understand the support needs that may be required by a youth. |
Income Q: My main sources of income are | We ask this question because we want to understand the link between income, access to, and experiences with our service. |
Occupation Q: I have a job | Asking this question allows us to better understand the support needs that may be required by a youth, and to ask appropriate questions in order to connect youth with an employment counsellor. |
Household Income Q: What was your total family income before last year? And how many people does this income support? | This part of the question gives us a better approximate of the socio-economic status, example: 50k salary for 2 people, vs 6 people is very different. |
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A person whose enduring physical, romantic, spiritual, emotional, and/or sexual attractions are to people of the same gender. The word can refer to men or women, although some women prefer “lesbian.” (1)
A woman who is emotionally, physically, spiritually and/or sexually attracted to women. (1)
A person who is emotionally, physically, spiritually and/or sexually attracted to people of more than one gender, though not necessarily at the same time. (1)
Formerly derogatory slang term used to identify LGBT people. Some members of the LGBT community have embraced and reinvented this term as a positive and proud political identifier when speaking among and about themselves. (1)
A person who has the potential for romantic and sexual attraction to people of any gender or sex. (1)
Demisexuality is a sexual orientation in which someone feels sexual attraction only to people with whom they have an emotional bond. (2)
A period where a person explores their own sexual and/or gender identity, reflecting on such things as upbringing, expectations from others, and inner landscape. The person may not be certain if they are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or trans and may be trying to figure out how to identify themselves. (1)
A term used by Indigenous People to describe from a cultural perspective people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, or intersex. It is used to capture a concept that exists in many different Indigenous cultures and languages. For some, the term two-spirit describes a societal and spiritual role that certain people played within traditional societies; they were often mediators, keepers of certain ceremonies; they transcended accepted roles of men and women, and filled a role as an established middle gender. (1)
A person who has romantic or sexual attractions to people of another gender. (1)
A person’s internal and individual experience of gender. It is a person’s sense of being a woman, a man, both, neither, or anywhere along the gender spectrum. A person’s gender identity may be the same as or different from their birth-assigned sex. A person’s gender identity is fundamentally different from and not related to their sexual orientation. (1)
A person whose sex assigned at birth is “male” and identifies as a woman may also identify as a trans woman (male-to-female, or MTF). (1)
A person whose sex assigned at birth is “female” and identifies as a man, and may also identify as a trans man (female-to-male, or FTM). (1)
Individuals who do not follow gender stereotypes based on the sex they were assigned at birth. They may identify and express themselves as “feminine men” or “masculine women” or as androgynous, outside of the categories “boy/man” and “girl/woman.” People who are gender non-conforming may or may not identify as trans. (1)
People who have a gender or genders that change. Genderfluid people move between genders, experiencing their gender as something dynamic and changing, rather than static. (3)
Identifying and/or presenting as neither distinguishably masculine nor feminine. (4)
An umbrella term for gender identities that are not exclusively masculine or feminine. (3)
- Rainbow Health Ontario. Glossary. [Online] nd. https://www.rainbowhealthontario.ca/glossary/
- Demisexuality Resource Center. What is Demisexuality? [Online] nd. http://demisexuality.org/articles/what-is-demisexuality/
- Gender Spectrum. The Language of Gender. [Online] 2019. https://www.genderspectrum.org/the-language-of-gender/
- Human Rights Campaign. Glossary of Terms. [Online] 2019. https://www.hrc.org/resources/glossary-of-terms
