Presume you're having dinner with your (extensive) family. Everyone is talking. Despite the fact that you've been open about your gay identity, your mother has asked you again when you're going to marry. Your brother is making fun of the guy you're seeing, and your aunt tells him to stop. Then, out of nowhere, your grandmother asks, "What is SOGIE?, causing your father to look up from his tablet, probably wondering if the question is about drugs.
SOGIE, an acronym that stands for sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression, has become one of the most commonly used terms to describe the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community. It is now being incorporated into many legal doctrines, UN documents, and is gaining popularity on social media platforms.
Its usefulness stems from its inclusiveness: the term "LGBT" refers to people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, whereas SOGIE refers to characteristics that are shared by all humans because everyone has a sexual orientation and a gender identity. Everyone, not just lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, expresses their gender.
1. Human sexuality is diverse
Rigid beliefs about sex and gender place people in boxes (or closets), but these viewpoints do not reflect human sexuality realities, particularly how gender roles and expressions, sexual attraction, and sexual behavior influence how a person views or lives his or her own sexuality. These ideas favor male-female distinctions and are biased against those who do not fit existing sex and gender stereotypes.
However, diversity is a natural feature of human sexuality: in reality, sexual attraction can and does occur between people of the same or opposite genders, and we do not always fit into gender roles and identities that are expected of us.
1. Sex is merely a marker on our birth certificates.
People are distinguished by biological differences manifested by a combination of anatomical (our internal reproductive organs and sexual organs), genetic, and hormonal distinctions, as well as other sexual characteristics.
When used to essentialize sex as the entirety of one's sexuality, the term becomes problematic. For example, intersex people or people whose sexual anatomy does not conform to the above definition may face stigma, forced surgery, and other human rights violations. Many people prefer the term "assigned sex" to describe how, in many cases, a person's sex is imposed on them by society.
To learn more about SOGIE, click on the link below:
The SOGIE Bill:
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