Adapting Language for Diverse (A)Genders, Bodies, and (A)Sexualities

Visit Adapting Language for Diverse (A)Genders, Bodies, and (A)Sexualities for:

1. clear infographics (see above for examples),

2. a checklist with advice for challenging situations such as:

3. and a statements-editing activity from a workshop by SextEd (a free and confidential texting helpline that answers questions about sex, dating, and health within 24 hours) and ACCM (AIDS Community Care Montreal).

“We also know it can be challenging to use inclusive language when students, peers, or service users don’t, or they’re not familiar with the practice. In these cases, you can still take the time to gently explain why you speak or write the way that you do: to respect the diversity in people’s sexualities, genders, and bodies. If someone asks why you phrased something a certain way, you can take the time to explain why.

In situations where a person is asking a question or speaking in a way that isn’t inclusive, you can....

— Use phrases like “Yes, men, or anyone with a penis, can get an erection at random.”

— Gently remind them of identities they didn’t include in their statement or question, “Yeah, for sure. But I also
think it’s important to keep in mind that some men don’t have penises, and some women do, to make sure we’re
being inclusive.””

— SextEd & ACCM

Language Drops Visual Dictionary

This visual dictionary by Language Drops is available as a web page or a smartphone app. This can be a useful tool for working with multilingual students. For example, the link below is for a set of words called Words for Gender Pronouns in Arabic.

"Rosie's mother said she felt extremely pressured by the surgeons to consent to surgery on [Rosie as an Intersex baby] even after she voiced her concerns." - CNN

"Rosie is now in the process of figuring out her gender identity on her own terms. While she says she still likes to use female pronouns for now and wants to keep her name, Rosie says that sometimes she feels like a boy and other times, nonbinary. "Because I am both!" she said.

"Rosie's mother, Stephani Lohman, said she felt extremely pressured by the surgeons to consent to surgery even after she voiced her concerns about the procedure, including the evidence that these surgeries can have devastating side effects including a loss of sexual function, psychological trauma and life-long pain.

Pending legislation in California and New York would effectively ban these surgeries in those places by requiring informed consent from the patient before a cosmetic genital surgery.

As of 2013, the United Nations has condemned the practice on the grounds that an infant cannot consent.

Three former US surgeons general agreed, writing in July 2017, "these surgeries violate an individual's right to personal autonomy over their own future."

In 2017, Human Rights Watch concluded the surgeries violate a patient's human rights. Their research found that these surgeries can cause life-long pain, scarring, loss of sexual function, the need for life-long hormone replacement and maintenance surgeries, and psychological harm similar to that of child sexual abuse victims.

Dr. Ilene Wong Gregorio is a practicing urologist and intersex rights advocate who supports the legislation.

"Doctors have been imposing their assumptions on heteronormativity and what a child should look like, and intersex bodies, for decades," she said. "There are still people who practice outdated medicine and the only way to protect children from these people, who through culture or ignorance or hubris, are doing these things, is to actually put something in writing in the court of law."