We believe that support begins with understanding.
That is exactly why we created this platform with educational materials for everyone who wants to know more about the LGBTQI+ community.
Here you will understand how we can be supported in everyday life: at work, at school, in a conversation with friends, parents, or even neighbors. What coming out is and why not all LGBTQI+ people are able to do it. How to recognize homophobia in daily life. Why “jokes” can hurt. And what it means to “vote” for equality not only in a private conversation, but in society as well.
The materials here are not lectures, but rather a conversation. They were created to help you understand others and, we hope, to see people you already know in a new way.
Writing and speaking about LGBTQI+ people ethically is not about some “special” language at all. It is about simple yet important things: humanity, respect, and understanding. We are often afraid of saying something wrong — and so we stay silent. Or the other way around — we think we are speaking neutrally, but our words can hurt. We created this material to make it easier to find the words. And so that silence is no longer needed.
LGBTQI+, LGBTQI+, or LGBTQI+ is not just a set of letters.
It is a shared name for different sexual orientations, gender identities, and forms of self-expression that still often face discrimination. Every letter is a community of people with its own history and struggle:
And the + sign means openness. It includes other identities that did not make it into the acronym but are part of the community. For example — asexual, pansexual, and demisexual people.
The LGBTQI+ community brings together people who face discrimination because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. And simply using this acronym is already an important step in the struggle for the rights and the recognition of a great many different people.
The absence of sexual attraction to any people.
This does not mean that asexual people cannot have relationships, love, or start a family — sex is simply not an important or desired part of life for them. Asexuality is one of the variations of human sexuality. And, like all the others, it is normal.
Disclosing a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity to others without that person’s own voluntary consent.
A feeling of distress and discomfort when a person’s inner gender identity does not match their sex and gender characteristics, or society’s expectations.
Put simply: when a person does not feel like themselves because of how they are perceived or what role is imposed on them — and this can have a very strong impact on their emotional state.
Emotional aversion, fear, anger, or other negative feelings or expressions directed against homosexual people (bisexual people, queer people, lesbians, and so on) or against those who are perceived as such.
A person disclosing their sexual orientation or gender identity to others.
An umbrella term for gender identities other than female or male, that is, ones that go beyond the gender binary system. Non-binary people may or may not have a need for a transgender transition.
Emotional aversion, fear, anger, or other negative feelings or expressions directed against transgender people or against those who are perceived as such.
The absence of any discrepancy between a person’s gender identity and the sex assigned to them at birth, and of any corresponding wish to change their sex and gender characteristics. Cisgender identity is the opposite of transgender identity.
Correct: a homosexual person, a homosexual man, a homosexual woman.
Incorrect: a homosexual (as a noun).
Using “homosexual” as a noun comes from the medical terminology of the 19th and 20th centuries, when homosexuality was considered a mental disorder. This word carries an undertone of illness, deviance, or abnormality, even though the World Health Organization removed homosexuality from the list of psychiatric diagnoses back in 1990.
Correct: a transgender person, a transgender man, a transgender woman.
Incorrect: a transgender, a trans, a transsexual.
If the word “person” is left out, it reduces a person to a single characteristic — their identity — and often sounds depersonalizing or dismissive. “Transsexual” is an outdated and pathologizing term that comes from the time when being transgender was considered a medical or psychiatric “diagnosis”.
Correct: transgender transition, trans transition.
Incorrect: sex change.
The term “transgender transition” covers the different changes to the characteristics that cause gender dysphoria. It also includes the legal, social, and psychological transition, not only the medical aspect.
Correct: Pride, the Equality March.
Incorrect: gay parade.
The term “gay parade” is often used in a dismissive tone, and it also erases the political idea of a public action and of the struggle for the rights of the LGBTQI+ community in favor of an entertainment framing.
Correct: intersex people, an intersex person.
Incorrect: third sex, hermaphrodite.
“Hermaphrodite” is a medicalizing and dehumanizing term that depersonalizes people, reducing them to an “anomaly” or a “biological curiosity”. It was often used in medical protocols to “correct” intersex bodies without a person’s consent, which became a source of deep trauma. The notion of a “third sex” ignores the reality in which sex characteristics are a diverse spectrum.
Correct: gay, a homosexual man.
Incorrect: f*ggot, h*mo, p*nsy.
All the words listed above are offensive, dehumanizing, and demeaning. These words should not be used, not even as a joke.
Correct: a lesbian, a homosexual woman.
Incorrect: d*ke, lezzie, lesbo.
All the words listed above are offensive, dehumanizing, and demeaning. These words should not be used, not even as a joke.
For a long time, diverse expressions of sexuality and gender — such as homosexuality, bisexuality and being transgender — were condemned by society and, accordingly, passed over in silence. As a result, a shortage of information about these phenomena arose, and it was sometimes filled in with stereotypes and myths far…
What rights do LGBTQI+ people still lack? The question of why LGBTQI+ people demand anything for themselves, of what it is they still lack, comes up in the public conversation from time to time. Sometimes it comes with accusations — supposedly they already have every right there is, and now they want some special ones…
Inappropriate questions to LGBTQI+ people When we talk about respect, we often mean things like equal rights, access to services, freedom of self-expression. But respect begins with the small things: with how we treat one another in everyday life, which words we choose, which questions we ask. LGBTQI+ people, like…
When it comes to coming out to the older generation, it can be a difficult and emotionally demanding process. Parents, grandmothers, grandfathers, or other relatives may hold ideas rooted in traditional or outdated views of sexual and gender identity. Yet it is important to remember that coming out is not only about…
How to respond to a coming out A GUIDE FOR FAMILY AND FRIENDS Which questions you can ask, which phrases to avoid, and how to support the person and yourself — explained by the psychological service of Insight NGO. Coming out is the situation in which a person stops hiding their own sexual orientation or gender…
Homophobia is a set of stereotypes and prejudices about homosexual people, reinforced by an emotional charge: fear, hostility, shame, hatred. It shows up both in judgments and in behavior, from avoidance to open displays of aggression. Spending every day in a school environment that broadcasts homophobia as the norm…
Bullying is not just a quarrel or an insult. It is constant, deliberate abuse that has a very powerful effect on a child. In a child who is bullied all the time, the psyche changes: anxiety, fear and a sense of guilt set in. These consequences can stay with a person for many years and can even require treatment…
Online activism often comes with hater attacks on social media, constant attempts by malicious actors to get into your accounts, and leaks of personal data. What to do when trolls attack? How to protect your accounts and personal data? How to recognize phishing messages? How to file a report with the cyber police? How…
Introduction 2016 became a landmark year for transgender people in Ukraine, because that was the year when the regulatory framework governing the transition procedure in general and, in particular, legal gender recognition – that is, obtaining personal documents in which the name and gender marker correspond to the…
Project team
Authors: Inna Iryskina, Mykyta Karimov
Copywriters: Yulia Solokha, Nata Shepeta
Design and layout: Olha Lebedieva
Design and illustrations: Oleksandra Spasova, Oleksandr Bosov
Filming and editing: Andrii Hordiiev
SMM: Oleh Nebelchuk
Communications strategist: Yulia Solokha
Communications manager: Nata Shepeta
The project “A Network for Democracy: building the future with the European leaders of tomorrow” is implemented by the NGO “STAN” and ActionAid in partnership with the NGO “Center for Social Transformations TENET”, Insight NGO, and the NGO “Chernivtsi Association Zakhyst” with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark. This project is part of the program “Young Ambassadors of Diversity”.
This is a program for young people and youth workers that strengthens social cohesion in order to build an inclusive, peaceful society, to minimize the likelihood of conflicts arising between different groups, and to speed up the integration of young internally displaced people. The program is implemented by the NGO “STAN” in partnership with ActionAid, an alliance for rights, equality, and international solidarity, with the support of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), Global Fund for Children (USA), Terre Des Hommes (Germany), and IM Swedish Development Partner (Sweden).
Any opinions set out in this publication belong to Insight NGO and do not necessarily reflect the views of ActionAid and/or the government of Denmark.
