Affirmative Action describes steps taken rectify disadvantages faced by oppressed people. It includes measures that are economic (reparations, scholarships), legal (land rights) or policy-based (quotas). The term often pertains to measures relating to African Americans in the USA. However, Affirmative Action can be applied to other axes of oppression (eg. gender, race, ability) and has been implemented in many institutions throughout the world.

Genderqueer is a catchall term to describe someone whose identity isn’t accurately described by man or woman. Can include androgynous, agender, genderfluid (see article below) and more.

Grooming refers to predatory behaviours towards a minor with the intent of engaging in sexual behaviours with them at a later time. It can occur in person or online. Grooming is a criminal offence.

Intersectionality describes the ways in which various forms of discrimination operate in combination with each other. For example: how does a black woman’s experience of sexism differ from a white woman’s? Intersectionality includes issues of gender, race, class, sexuality, disability, age, and more.

Intersex describes people whose biological sex characteristics don’t line up with typical definitions of male or female.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual and more. An inclusive umbrella of sexual orientation and gender identities.

Privilege refers to general advantages that someone has in society based on characteristics outside of their control such as gender or race. Having privilege in a particular area does not necessarily mean that someone has an easy life. Rather, it means that they have advantages that another person in a similar situation without that characteristic wouldn’t have. It is important to thoroughly consider intersectionality when discussing privilege.

Sexual Harassment refers to behaviour of a sexual nature that is unwanted. It includes, but is not limited to touching, jokes of a sexual nature, repeated requests for sex or dates and sending sexually explicit messages.

Sexualisation is the act of reducing someone to their sexual value, at the expense of their other traits or abilities.

Toxic masculinity broadly describes a learned set of harmful behaviours and attitudes performed in varying degrees by men. They are often based in conceptions of what a “real man” should be like. The end result is a lose-lose: these behaviours end up harming others and repress positive qualities in men.

A person is transgender if their gender identity differs from their assigned sex. It often implies some form of transition to the opposite sex (eg. Male To Female) though may also describe those that don’t fall within a gender binary.
Cisgender (often abbreviated to it’s prefix “cis”) describes a person whose gender identity aligns with their assigned sex. Most often used as the opposite to transgender.

Unconscious bias is an implicit preference toward a particular group. Everyone holds unconscious bias to some degree, though it can be acknowledged, examined and worked on.