Diverse | Queer | Allied
IDL GLOSSARY
Language to Navigate Our Site & Your Life
(in progress)
A a
ableism
A system, policy or person that devalues, discrimnates, or gaslights humans with visible / invisible disabilities.
abortion
The independent choice of a human with reproductive ability to safely and lawfully end their pregnancy. Period.
accessibility
Services, environments and objects designed inclusive of humans with visible / invisible disabilities.
accountability
Taking 100% responsibility.
activist / activism
adoption
taking legal responsibility for the well being of a person or animal.
addiction
The long-term suppression of emotions and/or self-worth resulting in momentary freedom through repetitive escapism.
afrofuturism
Afro-Latinx
ag
Aggressive - a lesbian / queer identity in the Black community.
Agender
Ageism
Systemic or individual prejudice / discrimination of a person based on their age.
Ally / allyship / allied
A verb. Not an identity.
A lifelong process of building relationships based on trust, consistency, and accountability with marginalized individuals and/or groups of people.
Allyship is not self-defined - allyship efforts must be recognized by the people we seek to ally ourselves with.
- www.TheAntiOppressionNetwork.com
American history
Ancestry
Androgynous
a person who embodies the unity of traditionally binary gender identities.
Anti-Blackness
Anti-Racism
the practice of identifying, challenging, and changing the values, structures and behaviors that perpetuate systemic racism.
- Ontario Anti-Racism Secretariat
Anti-Oppression
recognizes that oppression exists in our societies and actively works to challenge / change policies and structures of to equalize the balance of power.
Anxiety
Apartheid
a white supremacist national policy in South Africa legalizing segregation of the nation's majority indigenous Black residents and Indian community, securing the economic wealth, access to natural resources, and political power for the minority Dutch colonizer population. Between 1948 and 1994, more than three million indigenous citizens were forced to move from their homes to overcrowded & impoverished communities called townships. Many institutions of apartheid still exist today.
Art
is the boundless expression of life.
Asexual
the lack of sexual attraction to others, or low or absent emotional interest in sex. Asexual people do have romantic relationships that don’t include sex, and some develop sexual attraction once they are emotionally bonded to their partner(s).