Do you know the sex/gender terminology?

Grant #2011-JF-FX-0001  Urban Institute  “Access to Safety, Health Outcomes, Substance Use and Abuse, and Service Provision for LGBTQ Youth, YMSM, and YWSW Who Engage in Survival Sex “https://www.urban.org/research/publication/access-safety-health-outcomes-substance-use-and-abuse-and-service-provision-lgbtq-youth-ymsm-and-ywsw-who-engage-survival-sex   

This report provides a list of definitions for LGBTQ youth at risk for health problems. It was sort of wordy, so I condensed a bit.  In a discussion group we were noting the changing terminology.

Cisgender: Individuals whose experiences of their gender match the sex they were assigned at birth.

Gender expression: The aspects of behavior and outward presentation that may (intentionally or unintentionally) communicate gender to others in a given culture or society.

Gender nonconforming: People who have or are perceived to have gender characteristics or behaviors that do not conform to traditional or societal expectations. Gender-nonconforming people may or may not identify as transgender.

Sexual orientation: Whom a person is physically and emotionally attracted to. Sexual orientation is distinct from gender identity; transgender people may identify as heterosexual, bisexual, gay, lesbian, or any other sexual orientation.

Transgender: People whose gender identity (internal sense of being female, male, or another gender) is incongruent with their sex assigned at birth (physical body).

Young men who have sex with men (YMSM): Young men who may identify as heterosexual but have sex with members of the same sex, often in exchange for money and/or material goods.

Young women who have sex with women (YWSW): Young women who may identify as hetero-sexual but have sex with members of the same sex, often in exchange for money and/or material goods.

Exploiter: An individual who uses tactics involving force, fraud, and coercion to control a young person’s involvement in the commercial sex market.

Peer facilitator: A peer, who may or may not be engaged in survival sex, who provides nonexploitative support to someone engaging in survival sex, so the person engaging in survival sex does not have limited mobility; decides what they do and what they trade sex for; and is not subject to force, fraud, or coercion.

Youth engaged in survival sex: The phrases “youth engaged in survival sex” and “youth who exchange sex for money and/or material goods (e.g., shelter, food, and drugs)” are used here to reflect young people’s experiences of involvement in the commercial sex market in their own terms.

Gay family: An alternative familial network of LGBTQ people that may act as an alternative to the family of origin from which many LGBTQ people, particularly youth, have been excluded. The term may also be used to refer to drag houses in the ball scene.

Ball scene/house culture: A community consisting primarily of black and Latino and Latina LGBTQ people organized around anchoring family-like structures, called houses, and competitive balls. [I’d never heard of Ball Culture, but you can find a description in Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_culture .  Apparently, Langston Hughes in the 1920s described it.)

Barrier and nonbarrier protection: Any contraceptive or other protective device or method used to prevent unwanted pregnancy or the transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or other STDs.

 Interesting findings about the almost 300 youth in this study (this is the 3rd report):

99% of these LGBTQ at risk youth in this study were using contraceptives (barrier and nonbarrier). [A quick look shows that compares with about 50% of non LGBTQ teens)

93% were using the services of a helping agency, 99% accepted help from them and 94% said they would seek help from that agency again

only 5% in the study were white.

47% male, 36% female, 11% transwoman (i.e.biological male), 3% transman (biological female), 5% other, not specified, or wouldn’t say

These youth are at greater risk than heterosexual male and female youth for violence, abuse, sexual victimization, mental health risks,  sexually transmitted diseases, and homelessness

Other reports funded by this grant

https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/71446/2000424-Locked-In-Interactions-with-the-Criminal-Justice-and-Child-Welfare-Systems-for-LGBTQ-Youth-YMSM-and-YWSW-Who-Engage-in-Survival-Sex.pdf

HPV and Oropharyngeal Cancer

https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/hpv/basic_info/hpv_oropharyngeal.htm
Last autumn and winter I took some Coursera free classes in the medical field.  One I finished—medical statistics, and one I didn’t—gut microbiome. It was just too gross.  So I continue to get announcements to entice me to try again, something in the medical field.  Today it was HPV and Oropharyngeal Cancer.  I knew only a little about it—with the increased acceptance of oral sex, it has put many in danger of a disease they couldn’t have imagined in the pre-Monica days of “it’s not really sex.”
Here’s what CDC says it is, without ever suggesting that oral sex not be practiced:
“HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States. Of the more than 100 types of HPV, about 40 types can spread through direct sexual contact to genital areas, as well as the mouth and throat. Oral HPV is transmitted to the mouth by oral sex, or possibly in other ways. Many people are exposed to oral HPV in their life. About 10% of men and 3.6% of women have oral HPV, and oral HPV infection is more common with older age. Most people clear HPV within one to two years, but HPV infection persists in some people.”
Because it takes years for the problems to develop, CDC recommends that 11- to 12-year-old boys and girls get two doses of HPV vaccine, although there are no studies to show it actually prevents these cancers
This fact sheet is a little more graphic and explicit.  https://www.cdc.gov/std/healthcomm/stdfact-stdriskandoralsex.htm

Condoms. No one calls it safe sex anymore

Even with 100% condom use, your teen-agers aren't safe. That's one of the lies kids are told. Oral sex--no evidence it reduces chance of an STD; anal sex, no evidence; vaginal sex a condom can reduce HPV about 70%, herpes about the same; chlamydia and gonorrhea consistent and correct condom use reduce the chance to about 50%, HIV reduce about 85%. Who would fly with crash statistics like this? As males get older, they are even less likely to use condoms than male teens. These diseases can cause permanent infertility in women and cancer in both men and women. There's only one true protection, but society says that's too difficult. The same group telling you that biology doesn't matter and can be changed with surgery and hormones or just by saying its true, says it's too painful to control that sexuality in your natural state.