DR FAITH B YISRAEL

Imani.Consulting.Tobago@gmail.com

It's pride month!

June has been designated Gay Pride Month - a movement that seeks to provide the level of equality spoken about by President Paula-Mae Weekes in 2018.

'I think in terms of the State and all the law, all citizens and all persons under the protection of our jurisdiction should have equal treatment. Whatever their gender, whatever their race, we need to have absolute equality across the board in terms of state obligations and constitutional rights,' the president said.

Although gay pride was celebrated privately in Trinidad and Tobago for over 30 years, the first public parade was hosted by Pride TT (https://www.facebook.com/pridett/) in 2018, shortly after the Jones vs Trinidad and Tobago ruling. It is important to note that in 2016, former US president Barack Obama designated the Stonewall Inn bar (the location of the famous Stonewall riots in 1969) a national monument. That location was previously added to the Register of Historic Places in 1999.

What do the letters LGBTQIAA+ mean?

Many people are confused about what seems like an alphabet soup of letters being used by the gay community. This very long list of letters is an attempt to create an all-inclusive label for individuals who self-express and self-identify as different sexual orientations, sexual identities, and sexualities. This label tries to be all-encompassing and represents thousands of variations of people in the world.

L - Lesbian: anyone who identifies as a woman, and is sexually attracted to other women;

G - Gay: anyone who identifies as a man, and is sexually attracted to other men. Some women also prefer the term "gay woman" over "lesbian";

B - Bisexual: anyone who is sexually attracted to both men and women. This may also include being pansexual, which describes people who are attracted to 'people' regardless of their sex or gender. While bisexuals are attracted to both men and women, pansexuals are attracted to 'people' and don't see gender or sex as a defining factor;

T - Trans Experience (previously referred to as 'trans'): The term trans-experience is an umbrella term for those who are

(a) Transsexual: an older term that originated in the medical and psychological communities. It is still preferred by some people who have permanently changed or seek to change their bodies through medical interventions; or

(b) Transgender: an umbrella term for people whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.

Both of these terms refer to a person's gender identity, which is knowing whether one is male or female. Most young children understand their own gender identity by age two (where boys know that they are boys and girls know that they are girls). Sometimes though, a person's biological gender (they have a penis so should identify as boy) is not the same as their gender identity (where they have a penis but feel the