Ableism - Discrimination in favor of the able-bodied

Airing Dirty Laundry - Refers to exposing what happens in the black community between members of the community to the larger society; To make public what is private.

Barriers - Obstacles service providers face when serving diverse communities

Bisexual -A man or woman with a sexual and emotional orientation toward people of both sexes; bisexual men and women have sexual and romantic attractions to both men and women.

Class - Position in the economy, in the distribution of wealth and resources, income and poverty; position in the distribution of power and authority in the workforce.

Classism - Prejudice, discrimination, mistreatment, neglect of or lack of respect for any human and their rational needs (food clothing, shelter, education, respect, communication, etc.) based on people's socioeconomic class.

Coming Out - Accepting and letting others know of one's previously hidden sexual orientation or gender identity.

Confidentiality -Protecting information intended for or restricted to the use of a particular person. In some communities, the decision to seek outside agencies or authorities or to reveal private matters is disloyal; thus confidentiality is a major issue in many minority communities.

Cultural Barriers - Obstacles service providers face when serving diverse communities

Cultural Competency - A set of congruent policies that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals and enables that system, agency, or those professionals to work effectively in cross-cultural situations.

Cultural Relativism - The view that all "authentic" experience is equally valid and cannot be challenged by others; no external standards (vs. universalism)

Culture - Integrated patterns of human behavior that includes thoughts, communications, actions, customs, beliefs, values, and institutions of racial, ethnic, religious, or social groups. The customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits, set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes a racial, religious, or social group.

Cycle of Violence - Pattern in which domestic violence occurs; the cycle consists of three stages: tension building, violent incident, and the honeymoon stage.

Date/ Acquaintance Rape - Occurs when an individual is forced into having sex with someone they know. It can be someone they have just met, dated a few times, or even someone they have a serious intimate relationship with. The force may be threats, intimidation, tone of voice, and or physical violence.

Deference to Authority - A form of showing respect.

Diverse Communities - Groups from a broad spectrum of demographic, social, racial, economic, religious, and cultural differences.

Diversity - The term used to describe differences that exist among individuals, cultures, communities and societies.

Domestic Partner - Unmarried Partners who live together. Domestic partners may be of the same or different sexes or the same sex and may have some legal benefits by registering in some municipalities and states.

Domestic Violence - Any violence between current or former partners in an intimate relationship, wherever and whenever the violence occurs; the violence may include physical, sexual, emotional or financial abuse.

Dominant Culture - Includes the values, symbols, means of expression, language and interests of people in power in this society (not necessarily the majority!)

Economic Intersectionality - Refers to the way people from diverse communities are economically, deprived of resources, information, access to jobs, or the exploitation of labor.

Emotional Abuse - Subversive manipulation of the mind and feelings of the abused partner.

Ethnicity- Belonging to or deriving from the cultural racial, religious, language or beliefs of a particular group of people or country.

Ethnocentrism - The feeling that a group’s mode of living, values, and patterns of adaptation are superior to those of other groups. It may manifest itself in attitudes of superiority or hostility toward members of other groups and is sometimes expressed in discrimination, proselytizing, or violence.

Financial Dependence - Quite often, the abuser is the primary money maker, leaving the victim without a means.

Gay - Term sometimes used to refer to a homosexual person of either sex. For example, some lesbians identify as "gay." However, "gay" most commonly refers to men who primarily have emotional and sexual attraction to men.

Gender - Culturally and socially constructed relationships between men and women; the way we perceive things to be masculine and feminine.

Gender Identity - A person’s sense of self as being either male or female; gender identity does not always match biological sex; for example, a person may be born biologically male yet have a female gender identity; at birth, we are assigned one of two genders, usually based on our visible genitals.

Gender Roles — A set of expectations placed upon a person based on their perceived gender.

Global Level of Analysis - A term used to describe the connections among people and among issues as viewed from a worldwide perspective.

Heterosexism - Presumption that heterosexuality is universal and/or superior to homosexuality; prejudice, bias, or discrimination based on such presumptions.

Heterosexual - Individual with a primary sexual and affectional orientation or emotional attraction toward persons of the opposite sex.

Hierarchical - A structure based upon the classification of a group of people according to ability or to economic, social, or professional standing from highest to lowest.

Homophobia - Irrational fear or hatred of lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender people; the responses of fear, disgust, anger, discomfort, and aversion that individuals experience in dealing with gay people; often it is manifest in the form of dissemination and prejudice.

Honeymoon Stage - Cycle of violence phase where the person being abused rationalizes the abuse and stays in the relationship. The abuser may apologize for his/her behavior, shower the victim with attention and presents and promises to change. Sometimes there is no loving behavior during this stage, only an absence of violence.

Indirect Communication - In western culture, indirect communication can be seen as passive aggressive behavior. In Asian and Pacific Islander cultures, indirect communication avoids drawing attention to another’s mistakes or oversights.

Institutional Intersectionality — The structural classification of a group of people according to economic, social, or professional standing

Institutional Oppression - Focuses on the institutions present in society and how these institutions impact an individual's access to resources, information, and mobility.

Internalized Oppression - Internalized oppression is the set of negative feelings and misinformation that individuals carry about themselves and other members of their group. It is the turning inward of and adopting as true the misinformation that is directed toward oppressed people by the external oppression.

Intersectional Approach - Identifying multiple forms of oppression and challenging a single-agenda organizing models by looking broadly at the root causes of oppression and discrimination.

Intersectionality - An integrative perspective that emphasizes the intersection of several attributes, for example, gender, race, class, and nation.

Intersex - People born with some combination of male and female genitals.

Intimate Partner Stalkers - A stalker who may have a hard time "letting go" who then resorts a course of conduct directed at a specific person that involves repeated visual or physical proximity; nonconsensual communication; verbal, written, or implied threats; or a combination thereof that would cause fear.

Intimate Relationship - A dating relationship or a relationship between family members.

Intimidation - to compel or deter by or as if by threats

Isolation - An abuser may cut off his/her partner from systems of support such as networks of friends, family, and resources as a form of control.

Lesbian - Women who are sexually and affectionately attracted to other women.

Machismo - The belief in male superiority and domination and actions, behaviors and attitudes that support that belief; the term used to describe exaggerated aggressiveness and intransigence in male-to-male interpersonal relationships and arrogance and sexual aggression in male-to-female relationships. Machismo is not specific to Latino communities; it can be found in various cultures throughout the world.

Macro level of Analysis - A term used to describe the relationships among issues, individuals, and groups as viewed from a national perspective.

Macro Level of Oppression - Addresses oppression and discrimination that happens in societies and in communities. This level is made up of institutions such as schools, churches, government, and religions.

Marginality - The situation in which a person has a deep connection to more than one culture, community or social group but is not completely able to identify with or be accepted by that group as an insider.

Marginalization - Attitudes and behaviors that relegate certain people to the social, political, and economic margins of society by branding them and their interests as inferior, unimportant, or both.

Marital Rape - Any unwanted touching, intercourse, or penetration obtained by force or when wife is unable to consent.

Markers of Difference - Race, class, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, nationality, and religion are markers of difference. They are nether good nor bad; they only posses meaning in a hierarchically arranged society that places value or privileges a particular race, gender, or sexual orientation.

Matrix of Oppression and Resistance - The interconnections among various forms of oppression based on gender, race, class, nation, and so on.; even negative ascriptions may be the source of people's resistance based on shared identity.

Meso Level of Analysis - A term used to describe the relationships among issues, individuals, and groups as viewed from a community, or local perspective.

Micro level of Analysis - A term used to describe the connections among people and issues as seen from a personal or individual perspective.

Micro Level of Oppression - Addresses oppression and discrimination that happens at the individual or family level.

Multi-Culturalism - A term coined to address cultural, societal, and communal barriers in our society and the challenges that arise when working in diverse communities or with individuals from diverse backgrounds.

Multiple Oppressions - Experiencing two or more forms of oppression; racism and white supremacy, Classism, Ethnocentrism, Homophobia and Heterosexism, Ableism, and sexism as a effect of one’s Intersecting identities or multiple markers of difference.

Myth of Mutual Abuse - The common misconception of abuse in same sex relationship is that both people are equally at fault or equally violent. Many people are likely to dismiss violence in same sex relationships as a "fair fight" between two equals. This often prevents gays and lesbians who are victimized from getting the help they need.

Nationality - The quality or membership in a particular nation, whether original or acquired.

Negation of Others - Feeling the experiences of others to be ineffective or invalid.

Oppression - The systematic, institutionalized, and socially condoned (elite sanctioned) mistreatment of a group in society by another group or by people acting as agents of the society as a whole.

Partner - Significant other, life partner, domestic partner, lover, boyfriend, or girlfriend; "partner" is often equivalent to the term "spouse" for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people

Physical Abuse - Physical, force, threats, and intimidation.

Political Intersectionality - The different ways which political and discursive practices relating to race, gender, class, ethnicity, and sexuality interrelate often erasing women of color, communities of color lesbians and gays.

Poverty - the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions.

Prejudice - A closed-minded prejudging of a person or group as negative or inferior, even without personal knowledge of that group or person, and often contrary to reason or fats; unreasonable, unfair, and hostile attitudes toward people.

Privilege - Benefits and power from institutional inequalities. Individuals and groups may be privileged without realizing, recognizing, or even wanting it.

Race - Ancestry and selected physical characteristics such as skin color, hair texture, and eye shape.

Racism - The belief that human races have distinctive characteristics which determine their respective cultures, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule or dominate others; offensive or aggressive behavior to members of another race stemming from such a belief; a policy or system of government and society based on it. An ideology that gives expression to myths about other racial and ethnic groups, that devalues and renders inferior those groups, that reflects and is perpetrated by deeply rooted historical, social, cultural and power inequalities in society.

Rape - Sexual penetration (anal or vaginal), however slight, without consent; A sexual act is nonconsensual if it is forced through the use of physical force, manipulation, coercion, threats or intimidation.  Individuals who engage in sexual penetration of persons who are underage, or are physically incapacitated by the use of alcohol or drugs, or are mentally incapacitated, unconscious, or otherwise physically unable to communicate consent are guilty of rape.  Rape may be committed by a man or a woman upon a man or a woman and may be a stranger or someone know to the victim. 

Representational Intersectionality - Images readily available in society such as race, gender, sexual orientation, and ethnicity converge to create unique and specific narratives deemed appropriate for women of color, gays and lesbians, communities of color and other diverse communities.

Same-Sex Partner Violence - Violence experienced in same sex relationships.

Self-Negation - feeling one's self to be ineffective or invalid.

Sex - Biological and anatomical characteristics attributed to males and females.

Sexism - prejudice or discrimination based on sex.

Sexual Abuse - Sexual abuse is any form of sexual activity where there is no consent or consent is not possible.

Sexual Assault - Any nonconsensual sexual act or touching, whether a stranger or someone known to the victim.  A sexual act is nonconsensual if it is forced through the use of physical force, manipulation, coercion, threats or intimidation.  While sexual assault may refer to actual or attempted oral sex, attempted anal or vaginal penetration, or penetration by an object, it also includes unwanted sexual touching.

Sexual Orientation - Sex of partners in an emotional/sexual relationship; innate sexual attraction indicating who one is erotically attracted to.

Shame - A painful emotion caused by consciousness of guilt, shortcoming, or impropriety

Situated Knowledge - Knowledge and ways of knowing that are specific to a particular historical and cultural context.

Social Control - Attitudes, behaviors, and mechanisms that keep people in their place. Overt social controls include laws, fines, imprisonment, and violence. Subtle ones include ostracism and withdrawal of status and affection.

Social Institutions - Institutions such as the family, education, the media, organized religion, law, and government.

Social Location - The social features of ones' identity incorporating individual, community, societal, and global factors such as gender, class, ability, sexual orientation, age and so on.

Stalking - A course of conduct directed at a specific person that involves repeated visual or physical proximity; nonconsensual communication; verbal, written, or implied threats; or a combination thereof that would cause fear.

Standpoint Theory - The view that different social and historical situations give rise to very different experiences and theories about those experiences.

Stranger Rape - Nonconsensual, or forced sex with someone who does not know her/his attacker.

Structural Intersectionality - The way in which people of color are situated within overlapping systems of subordination.

Taboo Subjects - A social or religious custom prohibiting or restricting a particular practice or forbidding association with a particular person, place, or thing

Tension Building Stage - Cycle of violence phase where the abuser may be emotionally or verbally abusive, may harass, threaten, or intimidate his/her partner. During his phase the person being abused may feel as if they are "walking on egg shells" to avoid a violent outburst.

Threats - an expression of intention to inflict evil, injury, or damage

Transgendered - Transgender (sometimes shortened to trans or TG) people are those whose psychological self ("gender identity") differs from the social expectations for the physical sex they were born with.

Transsexual - Transsexual refers to a person who experiences a mismatch of the sex they were born as and the sex they identify as. A transsexual sometimes undergoes medical treatment to change his/her physical sex to match his/her sex identity through hormone treatments and/or surgically. Not all transsexuals can have or desire surgery.

Violence Against Women - Violence against women is a chosen action against a woman or girl child simply because of her gender, simply because she is female; Violence against women cuts across race, religion, income, class and culture; Violence Against Women is deeply embedded in all cultures, so much so that millions of women consider it a way of life.

Violent Incident - Cycle of violence occurrence that is often accompanied by severe emotional and verbal abuse.

White Privilege - Unlearned, social power given by historically based systems of race that puts white people at an advantage over those who do not have it; usually invisible to those who have it because they are taught not to see it.

White Supremacy - A historically based system of exploitation and oppression of continents, nations, and people of color. was established by white people of the European continent through violent, historical practices of colonialism and slavery; causes the current unequal distribution of wealth, power and privilege among different races.