This document discusses cultural sensitivity regarding sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression. It begins by defining common terms used in the LGBTQQIA community, explaining that gender and sexuality exist on spectrums rather than as simple binaries. It then discusses the discrimination and violence faced by LGBTQQIA individuals, particularly transgender people and those who are racial minorities. Finally, it argues that the traditional gender binary system imposed harmful Western colonialist views and erased the acceptance of non-binary identities found in many non-Western cultures. The document advocates recognizing one's privilege to give marginalized voices opportunity to speak and progress liberation from the bottom up.

1. CULTURAL SENSITIVITY &
SEXUAL ORIENTATION/GENDER EXPRESSION & IDENTITY
Part one: What the letters mean
Part Two: Why does pride matter?
Materials:
1. List of diverse sexual, gender, and romantic orientations, and other
important terms
2. List of possible pronouns
3. Cisgender privilege (based on Peggy McIntosh’s white privilege)
4. Colonialism, Two-Spirit Identity, and the Logics of White Supremacy
(Singer, Phoenix A., n.d.)
PART ONE:
What the letters mean, & why cultural competency on the
LGBTQQIA community is important

2. We live in a world where we are increasingly exposed to diverse people through social
networking websites and the mainstream media. As such, these mediums—and those who
develop and/or produce them—must evolve with the times. We as citizens of the larger society
must do so, as well. It is not a matter of political correctness but rather that of protecting and
affirming these people and their identities.
You may know a gay or lesbian person. You certainly realize that here, in New York State, it is
legal to marry persons of the same-sex. However, unlike what some may believe, the queer rights
movement goes far beyond allowing same-sex individuals to marry. It is considered by many to
be only the tip of the iceberg.
In the section header, the acronym LGBTQQIA is used. You may have seen similar acronyms
before, such as GLBT, LGBT, or LGBTQ. Some complain that the acronym is growing too long,
but the fact is, lesser-known sexual and/or gender orientations should be recognized and
respected just as cis-gay people must be.
The understanding most have of sexuality and gender is that it looks something like this.
Sexual orientation is:
When in reality, Alfred Kinsey, the famed sexologist, described it much better over 50 years ago.

3. It is possible to engage in same-sex sexual and/or romantic activity and not be gay; likewise, it is
possible to engage in opposite-sex sexual and/or romantic activity and not be straight. As is seen
on the chart, it is also possible to have no interest in sex at all.
Now in terms of gender, most people think of things as:
When in reality, gender expression is more like this:

4. The concept of thinking that there are only two genders, male and female, is called the gender
binary. In reality, human beings are a lot more complex than that.
If you feel that your biological sex matches up with your internal, perceived gender, you are
CISGENDER
However, if you do not feel this “harmony” between your biological sex and the gender you feel
and act, you are
TRANSGENDER
And if you feel you do not belong in either group, you are
NON-BINARY (which some refer to as “enby”)
Now imagine if someone—a stranger or a family member—said to you, “You’re not a
man/woman. Stop pretending.” When you know inside you are what you are, and someone says
this, it can feel very hurtful. If people are trying to force you to be what you are not, you may
feel angry, depressed, ashamed, or unloved. You may in fact feel like ending your life.
Now imagine this similar situation. You are out in public shopping for clothes. People stare at
you or laugh at you. Suddenly, you feel like you need to use the restroom. If you go into the
wrong room, people will get frightened and demand you leave, or could even lash out at you
verbally or even physically.
This is exactly why respecting someone’s gender expression/identity is so important.

5. Likewise, if you do not feel you are a man or a woman, or some combination of both, the world
can be a very lonely place, indeed. Everyone around you assumes that people like you don’t
exist. When you meet someone, they act like you are making things up. They do not use the right
words to address you; imagine someone calling you “sir” when you clearly are a woman!
Included with this guide is a list of common pronouns to use when interacting with someone of a
gender outside the binary.
Now back to that pesky acronym. Just what do those extra letters stand for? You know the first
few:
Gay
Referring to a man who is attracted romantically and sexually to other men. (Also a blanket term
referring to any same-sex attraction.)
Lesbian
Referring to a woman who is attracted romantically and sexually to other women.
Bisexual
Referring to a person who is attracted romantically and sexually to members of the gender binary
(cisgender men and/or cisgender women)
Transgender
(previously defined above)
The two Q’s stand for:
Queer
Originally pejorative for gay, now being reclaimed by some gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and
transgendered persons as a self-affirming umbrella term. (from Urban Dictionary)
Questioning
(pretty self-explanatory)
The I stands for:
Intersex
One who is born with sex chromosomes, external genitalia and/or an internal reproductive
system that is not considered “standard” or normative for either the male or female sex. Preferred
term to hermaphrodite. (From: http://transwellness.org/resources/educational-materials/trans-
and-queer-terms/)

6. Finally, the A stands for asexual, which has been defined above.
It has been a great struggle to get to this point in history in which such diverse sexualities and
identities are recognized and affirmed. Still, some do not get the attention and respect that they
deserve—even from within the LGBT community.
That’s why it is vital for us “cishets” (read: someone who has no conflict between sex and
gender and someone who is straight) to lend a helping hand.

7. PART TWO:
Why does pride matter?
Section 1: Hard truths
Some of the reasons why were outlined in the last section, but let’s explore them more.
This is from the general cultural competency handbook:
Although society is improving its attitudes towards LGBTQQIA people, they still encounter
hate. Children may be disowned or even victims of violence for being of a different sexual or
gender orientation than their parents. Cisgender lesbian and gays often receive more protection
from legislation than do bisexual/pansexual, transgender, intersex, or asexual individuals as they
have become more readily accepted in society. As such, these individuals are pushed even
further to the margins, and may even be oppressed by members of their own community. Queer
or trans people of color also experience a compounded disadvantage for being of a different race
and sexual or gender orientation; they can be ostracized by both their white queer or trans
community and their heterosexual or cisgender communities of color.
It is worth noting that due to the discrimination many queer or trans people face, they often are
driven out of more mainstream jobs in favor of sex work. Thus, for the safety and quality of life
of these individuals, we as a multiculturalist organization must adopt a pro-sex work stance in
regards to LEGAL and CONSENSUAL sex work. An anti-sex work stance can be summed up as
whorephobic.
Whorephobia can be defined as the fear or the hate of sex workers. Sex workers like me would
argue that it also embraces paternalistic attitudes that deem us a public nuisance, spreaders of
disease, offenders against decency or unskilled victims who don't know what is good for them
and who need to be rescued.
Here are also some troubling statistics on being LGBTQQIA in America.
(From the Trevor Project)
LGB youth are 4 times more likely, and questioning youth are 3 times more likely, to attempt
suicide as their straight peers.
• Suicide attempts by LGB youth and questioning youth are 4 to 6 times more likely to
result in injury, poisoning, or overdose that requires treatment from a doctor or nurse, compared
to their straight peers.
• Nearly half of young transgender people have seriously thought about taking their lives,
and one quarter report having made a suicide attempt.

8. • LGB youth who come from highly rejecting families are 8.4 times as likely to have
attempted suicide as LGB peers who reported no or low levels of family rejection.
(From the American Suicide Foundation/Williams Institute’s National Transgender
Discrimination Survey)
• Suicide attempts among trans men (46%) and trans women (42%) were slightly higher than the
full sample (41%). Cross-dressers assigned male at birth have the lowest reported prevalence of
suicide attempts among gender identity groups (21%).
• Analysis of other demographic variables found prevalence of suicide attempts was highest
among those who are younger (18 to 24: 45%), multiracial (54%) and American Indian or Alaska
Native (56%), have lower levels of educational attainment (high school or less: 48-49%), and
have lower annual household income (less than $10,000: 54%).
• Prevalence of suicide attempts is elevated among those who disclose to everyone that they are
transgender or gender-non-conforming (50%) and among those that report others can tell always
(42%) or most of the time (45%) that they are transgender or gender non-conforming even if they
don’t tell them.
• Respondents who are HIV-positive (51%) and respondents with disabilities (55-65%) also have
elevated prevalence of suicide attempts. In particular, 65 percent of those with a mental health
condition that substantially affects a major life activity reported attempting suicide.
Respondents who experienced rejection by family and friends, discrimination, victimization, or
violence had elevated prevalence of suicide attempts, such as those who experienced the
following:
— Family chose not to speak/spend time with them: 57%
— Discrimination, victimization, or violence at school, at work, and when accessing health care
• Harassed or bullied at school (any level): 50-54%
• Experienced discrimination or harassment at work: 50-59%
• Doctor or health care provider refused to treat them: 60%
• Suffered physical or sexual violence:
— At work: 64-65%
— At school (any level): 63-78%
— Discrimination, victimization, or violence by law enforcement:

9. • Disrespected or harassed by law enforcement officers: 57-61%
• Suffered physical or sexual violence: By law enforcement officers: 60-70
— Experienced homelessness: 69%
As of this writing, 226 transgender individuals have been murdered in hate crimes in 2014.
(From Transrespect vs. Transphobia Worldwide; Transgender Europe (TGEU))
So what can we do to challenge a society that fosters these crimes and help break down a culture
of silencing, shaming, and refusing to recognize the humanity of LGBTQQIA people?
 Do not assume someone is straight and/or cis.
 Do not ask transgender or NB people about surgery. Not all trans/NB people desire to
have sex-reassignment surgery, nor can some who want it afford it.
 Respect identities and pronouns.
 Remember: genitals do not equal gender. A woman can have a penis. A man can have a
vagina. Non-binary people have the same genitals as binary people, but do not identify
with the gender they are typically ascribed to.
 Do not ask gay men or lesbians about sub/Dom or top/bottom. Someone else’s sex life is
none of your business.
 Do not use slurs like “faggot,” “dyke,” “tranny,” “shemale,” or use “gay” in a negative
way.
 Do not believe in attitudes that equate being gay or trans as unnatural, immoral, or
deviant. Do not believe that gay men or transgender women are sexual predators.
 Do not assume that all people are interested in sexual or romantic activity.
 Do not accuse anyone of “heterophobia” or “cisphobia” (things that do not exist)
 If you are a feminist, do not be a TERF
WHAT IS A TERF?
Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist, a feminist who does not believe transwomen are
women; feels that women’s spaces should not allow transgender women; accuses
transgender women of being men/their defenders as being misogynists; bullies transgender
women (sometimes to the point of suicide) without remorse; seeks to abolish gender; and
who, overall, is a transphobic/transmisogynistic NOT VERY NICE PERSON.
Likewise, do not be a SWERF, a sex-work-exclusionary feminist.

10. Section2: The Intersections ofRace and Sexual Orientation/Gender
Expression:How the Gender Binary Represents ColonialistOppression
Cultures around the world who have recognized more than male and female as a gender date
back to ancient times. They range from the Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Hindus, to the Native
American tribes such as the Comanche, Apache, Lakota, and Crow. In modern India, there are
the hijra, which Western societies would describe as a transgender or third-gender identity. In the
Balkan mountains (in countries such as Croatia and Albania), a woman who takes an oath of
lifelong chastity is known as a sworn virgin, who is thereby allowed to dress in masculine
clothing and perform male gender roles. In the Polynesian islands (in particular the island of
Samoa), the Fa'afafine are a third gender that is a blend of man and woman.
Many modern scholars and social justice commenters remark upon the concept of the gender
binary and its ascribed roles of male dominance and female submissiveness as a strictly Western
ideology. Thus, it was not a part of many cultures and was thrust upon them forcibly through
imperial conquest and cultural subjugation. Native American queer feminists in particular
describe forced cultural assimilation by American colonialists as the reason why the traditional
“Two-spirited” identity is shamed. Twitter user @DarkMatterRage, a femme-transgender Desi
activist, speaks out regularly on how the gender binary is an enforcement of Western
civilization’s history of white supremacy, colonialism, and state-sponsored violence against
people of color and their cultural identities. Our very own Binghamton University professor
Maria Lugone has written extensively on the connection between the Western encroachments
onto foreign cultures, bringing with it a system of gender that did not exist to them beforehand.
Our duty as culturally competent/sensitive individuals is to recognize that we benefit from white
privilege/white supremacy in a queer context as well as a race context. We take for granted that
there are only two genders, male and female, and do not realize that this is the violent erasure of
those who lie outside this cissexist perception of the world. We take for granted that the
heterosexist assumption that everyone is straight, that the only “logical” or “natural” way of life
is being a man attracted to women, and vice versa. And we take for granted that male is superior
to female, thus upholding a violent heteropatriarchy that enables rape culture, domestic violence,
and the idea that men must dominate and control others in order to be accepted as male.
These assumptions make us unaware and unknowingly complicit in a system that enables
horrible gender- and sexuality-focused violence towards those different than us. It unfairly labels
women of color as deviant in their sexual expression, and shuts down their sexual autonomy. It
reinforces a culture that emphasizes women of all races must strive towards impossible ideals of
beauty for the purpose of submission to male power and control. It erases the freedom of choice,
that we may choose our sexuality, choose our gender, and choose whether or not we wish to
procreate, rather than being mandated by other people and systems.

11. An interesting thing happened when a group of non-binary activists attempted to trend
#NBrightsnow … trans people of color (both binary and non-binary) hijacked the conversation to
remind all social justice activists that they, being oppressed due to race, needed their voices more
amplified in the fight for transgender rights.
While it is true that white transgender people of non-binary identities face erasure, social
dysphoria, and gaslighting for their gender and/or pronouns (especially when using
neopronouns), their chances of being murdered in transphobic hate crimes are lower due to white
privilege. Also, in the discourse that seeks to progress LGBTQIA rights forward, trans and/or
queer people of color are often silenced or forgotten. Few know that the Stonewall riots involved
Sylvia Rivera, a Latina bisexual transgender woman, and Marsha P. Johnson, a black trans
woman and sex worker, who also helped found the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries
(STAR), one of the first pro-trans activist groups in the United States.

12. Today, Hunter Lourdes carries on their legacy by being an outspoken activist for trans women of
color. The Audre Lords project (of no relation) seeks for rights, awareness, and justice for the
fallen members of the LGBTQIA community of color.
So back to the hashtag… Just what happened when T/QPOC attempted to shift focus towards
their much more-marginalized population?

14. Recognizing that being white and being trans-NB still garners a person with white privilege
allows one to decenter themselves in discourse to give the marginalized an opportunity to speak.
By giving these vulnerable persons the opportunity to speak, they are given the chance to be
liberated rather than oppressed. If they can be liberated, then all can be, from a “bottom-up”
approach.
The erasure of queer and/or trans POC is yet another attempt at neocolonialist co-optation of a
movement and identity that was originally theirs, long before the forced assimilation of
traditional third-gendered peoples into a binarist, heteropatriarchal culture; long before the gay
rights movement gained traction and became the mainstream; and long before the death by
suicide of a transgender woman would be considered as a national news story.
At the time of this writing, a national uproar and protest movement is occurring in light of the
suicide of Leelah Alcorn, a 17-year-old transgender woman whose parents attempted to
misgender and bury under her dead name, Joshua. In fact, her mother attempted to cover up the
entire truth of her death, claiming that she took a walk and was hit by a truck, rather than
stepping in front of the oncoming vehicle deliberately. It was revealed in her suicide note, a final
post upon her Tumblr blog that has since been deleted (yet preserved by trans activists) that
Leelah had been subjected to Christian reparative therapy on the part of her parents. It was her
dying wish that her death not be in vain, but be used as a message to “fix society.”
The story quickly picked up steam on national media outlets and prompted a “Go Pink for
Leelah” day of remembrance in which cis and trans women painted a fingernail pink in
solidarity. However, the suicide of a Turkish transgender woman, Elyül Cansin, received zero
news attention in the American media. Nor so have the murders of a multitude of trans women of
color, including Nizah Morris, Islan Nettles, Jennifer Laude, Ukea Davis, Stephanie Thomas, or
Lateisha “Teish” Green.