ISSUES
: Sexuality and Gender
Chapter 1: Understanding sexuality
2
people seek surgery or take
hormones to bring their body into
alignment with their gender identity;
others do not.
What is intersex?
An intersex person is born with
sexual
anatomy,
reproductive
organs
and/or
chromosome
patterns that do not fit the typical
definition of male or female. This
may be apparent at birth or become
so later in life. An intersex person
may identify as male or female or
as neither. Intersex status is not
about sexual orientation or gender
identity: intersex people experience
the same range of sexual
orientations and gender identities
as non-intersex people.
What are homophobia
and transphobia?
Homophobia is an irrational fear
of, hatred or aversion towards
lesbian, gay or bisexual people;
transphobia denotes an irrational
fear, hatred or aversion towards
transgender people. Because
the term homophobia is widely
understood, it is often used in an
all-encompassing way to refer to
fear, hatred and aversion towards
LGBT people in general.
What kind of human
rights violations are
LGBT people exposed
to?
LGBT people of all ages and in all
regions of the world suffer from
violations of their human rights.
They are physically attacked,
kidnapped, raped and murdered.
In more than a third of the world’s
countries, people may be arrested
and jailed (and in at least five
countries executed) for engaging
in private, consensual, same-sex
relationships. States often fail to
adequately protect LGBT people
from discriminatory treatment in
the private sphere, including in the
workplace, housing and healthcare.
LGBT children and adolescents
face bullying in school and may be
thrown out of their homes by their
parents, forced into psychiatric
institutions or forced to marry.
Transgender people are often
denied identity papers that reflect
their preferred gender, without
which they cannot work, travel,
open a bank account or access
services. Intersex children may be
subjected to surgical and other
interventions without their or often
their parents’ informed consent,
and as adults are also vulnerable to
violence and discrimination.
Is there any reason
to criminalise
homosexuality?
No. Criminalising private sexual
relationships between consenting
adults, whether the relationships
are same-sex or different-sex, is
a violation of the right to privacy.
Laws criminalising consensual
same-sex relationships are also
discriminatory, and where enforced,
violate rights to freedom from
arbitrary arrest and detention. At
least 76 countries have laws in effect
that criminalise private, consensual
same-sex relationships, and in
at least five countries conviction
may carry the death penalty. In
addition to violating basic rights,
this criminalisation serves to
legitimise hostile attitudes towards
LGBT people, feeding violence
and discrimination. It also hampers
efforts to halt the spread of HIV by
deterring LGBT people from coming
forward for testing and treatment
for fear of revealing criminal activity.
Hate crime
Source:
Figures reveal a ‘shocking’ rise in homophobic hate crimes,
The Independent, 13 October 2015
Number of recorded crimes against someone’s sexual orientation, England & Wales
2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15
0
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
4,345
4,241
4,584
5,597
Number of recorded crimes against
someone’s sexual orientation
Year
The actual scale of hate crime is
likely to be far higher as only
about
one in four
offences is
thought to be reported to police.
In 2015, hate crimes involving
those with transgender identity
went
up by 9 per cent
.
Forces in England and Wales
recorded
5,597 hate crimes
against gays and lesbians in
2014-15, a rise of 22 per cent
on the previous 12 months.
22%
