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Glossary Bisexual
Eating Disorder
When a person is emotionally and/or sexually
A group of disorders characterized by
attracted to persons of more than one sex.
physiological and psychological disturbances
Civil society
in appetite or food intake.
Is composed of the totality of voluntary social
Gay
relationships, civic and social organizations, and
A person who feels sexual and/or emotional
institutions that form the basis of a functioning
desire exclusively or predominantly for persons
society, as distinct from the force-backed
of her or his own sex. The term has however been
structures of a state (regardless of that state’s
misused to cover all gay men and lesbians (and
political system) and the commercial institutions
sometimes even bisexuals). This has been widely
of the market.
discussed, and gay should therefore only be
Council of Europe Europe’s oldest political organization, founded in 1949. It groups together 47 countries. The Council of Europe’s headquarters are in Strasbourg, France. Discrimination Is the prejudicial treatment of individuals based on a membership in a certain group or category. Usually it involves negative behaviours (excluding from different opportunities) towards a group and its members that are available to others. As such it can be direct and indirect,
used when it is referring to men are emotionally and/or sexually attracted to other men. If the intention is to cover all without intentional excluding any sexual orientation or gender identity/expression, then it is recommendable not to use only the term gay, and instead use LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex people). Homophobia The fear, unreasonable anger, intolerance or/and hatred toward homosexuality. Homophobia can appear in various ways:
where direct means that an individual or a group
Internalised Homophobia
is blatantly discriminated (e.g. not hiring women)
When lesbian women, gay men and bisexual people
while indirect means that everybody has the
are considering and accepting heterosexuality as
same rights but some individuals or groups
the correct way of being and living.
cannot use those rights because of some other problem (e.g. height requirements for a job).