Gender and sexuality. Overview report.

Why are gender and sexuality important for policymakers practitioners and activists? Sexuality and gender can combine to make a huge difference in peoples lives - between well-being and ill-being and sometimes between life and death. Ideologies claiming that women should be pure and chaste and virgins until marriage can lead to female genital mutilation honour killings restrictions on womens mobility or economic or political participation. Ideas that men should be macho can mean that sexual violence by men is expected instead of condemned. Gender inequalities and taboos around sexuality can exacerbate the spread of HIV/AIDS. And 68000 women still die each year from illegal abortions. In many places to be considered a proper man or proper woman you need to act one hundred per cent heterosexual and stay in line with gender stereotypes. Thus being lesbian gay bisexual or transgender (LGBT) can result in marginalisation or violence. But just as sexuality has repercussions related to poverty marginalisation and death it can instead lead to empowerment enjoyment and well-being and can enhance human relations with shared intimacy or pleasure. In fact sex can be a place where women escape the pressures of reputation to satisfy their desires to the full where men let themselves enjoy being vulnerable where transgender affirm their sense of self with lovers who see them as they wish to be seen. (excerpt)