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Sexual Orientation
The direction of one’s sexual interest or attraction. It is a personal characteristic that forms part of who you are. It covers the range of human sexuality from lesbian and gay, to bisexual and straight.
Sex-Positive
An attitude that views consensual sexual activity as fundamentally healthy and pleasurable, promotes comprehensive sex education, and respects sexual diversity, autonomy and consent.
Social Determinants of Health
Things that are needed for people to avoid illness and to be physically, mentally and socially healthy (e.g. income, employment, housing, access to services).
Social Justice
A concept based on a vision of society in which the distribution of resources is equitable and individuals and groups are given equal opportunity, fairness, civil liberties, and participation in the rights, freedoms and responsibilities valued by society.
Stereotype
Overly simplistic, or unfounded assumptions or judgments about a group of people that disregard individual differences among group members and emphasize negative preconceptions that characterize all members of a group as being the same.
Stigma
Severe social disapproval or discontentment with a person or group on the grounds of their particular circumstance, usually based on differences from social or cultural norms.
Straight
A person who has romantic or sexual attractions to people of another gender.
Tokenism
The practice of making a minimal or symbolic effort towards including members of underrepresented groups to create an appearance of diversity without addressing systemic inequities or ceding meaningful power.
Transgender (trans)
Umbrella terms for people whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. This includes, but is not limited to, trans men, trans women and non-binary people.
Transmisogyny
Negative attitudes, expressed through cultural hate, individual and state violence, and discrimination directed toward trans women and trans and gender non-conforming people on the feminine end of the gender spectrum.
Transsexual
A historical term (now largely outdated) used most commonly in the latter half of the 20th century to describe a person who identified with a sex different from the one they were assigned at birth. The term has largely fallen out of general use in favour of the broader and more inclusive term “transgender” or...
Transition
Refers to a host of personal, social, legal and/or medical processes that some trans people may pursue to affirm their gender identity. This may include changes to their name, sex designation, dress, pronouns, hormone therapy, surgeries or other medical procedures.
Transphobia
Negative attitudes and feelings and the aversion to, fear or hatred or intolerance of trans people and communities. Like other prejudices, it is based on stereotypes and misconceptions that are used to justify discrimination, harassment and violence toward trans people, or those perceived to be trans.
Trans Man
A person whose sex assigned at birth is “female” and identifies as a man.
Two-Spirit
A term used by some Indigenous people in North America to describe a person who embodies both a masculine and feminine spirit, or whose identity, sexuality or spirituality exists outside of colonial, binary understandings of gender and sexuality. It is a cultural, spiritual and gender identity specific to Indigenous contexts, not a synonym for LGBTQ+...
WSW (Women who have Sex with Women)
A term used primarily in public health and epidemiology to categorize a woman based on sexual behaviour with other women, regardless of her sexual or gender identity. It describes behaviour, not identity, and should not be used as a synonym for lesbian or bisexual women. While crucial for research and health interventions, it is generally...
Neopronouns
A category of pronouns created and used as alternatives to he/him, she/her or they/them. Examples include ze/zir and xe/xem. These pronouns are often adopted by individuals who feel that traditional pronouns do not accurately reflect their gender identity or sense of self. As with all pronouns, the correct usage is determined solely by the individual...
Barry Adam
Dr. Adam has an extensive record of working towards gay and bisexual men’s sexual health alongside a wide range of community and academic partners. Specifically, he has sought to apply principles of community-based research into work on HIV prevention and issues of living with HIV. Previously, he focused on gay and lesbian movements, documenting how…
Jeffrey Aguinaldo
My health research encompasses two broad intersecting areas of interest. The first is the application of discursive approaches to the study of social interaction. The second involves critical analyses of public health and health care discourse, from explicit anti-oppression frameworks. My past research has focused on the substantive areas of HIV/AIDS, sexual health, substance use,…
Greta Bauer
Experience in health disparities in lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans populations; HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections, sexual and reproductive health; analysis of large population-based public health data sets; methodological work in measuring sexual orientation and gender identity in health research.
David Brennan
The health of gay and bisexual men marginalized by age, race/ethnicity, HIV status and socioeconomics; including issues of mental health, health disparities, body image, resiliency, childhood sexual abuse, coming out, racism, aging with HIV; Online Internet usage for sex, community and health information; syndemic health issues for queer men.
Nicola Brown
My doctoral research examined the relational experiences of queer women partnered with transsexual men. Among the findings were the ways in which systemic transphobia added to relational stress.
Patrice Corriveau
Previously, I worked on the project Impacts of Criminal Prosecutions for HIV Exposure and Transmission on People Living with HIV. Before that, I was doing research on homophobia and legal repression against gay people. Currently, my research focuses on suicide prevention without an LGBT2SQ focus.
Shelley Craig
Resiliency and sexual minority youth Social determinants of health for multiethnic sexual minority youth (MSMY) Impact of clinical and outreach programs on SMY Program fidelity and implementation