Definitions below are from Dr. Weissman's Clinical Research Project, Transgender Jewish-Americans: A Psychological Phenomenological Inquiry (Weissman 2013) unless otherwise noted. 

Disorders of Sex Development (DSD) – Medicalized definition of intersex; According to the Accord Alliance*, the 2006 "Consensus Statement on Intersex Disorders" decided that DSD is the “congenital conditions in which development of chromosomal, gonadal, or anatomic sex is atypical” and the most appropriate term used to describe these kinds of conditions

Gender - Societal ideas of what makes people men, women, intersex, etc.

Intersex - An identity; Someone who has ambiguous genitalia or secondary sex characteristics or atypical sex chromosomes

Judaism - A religion, ethnicity, identity, and/or shared history of the Jewish people

Polyamory - My current favorite definition is found on the More Than Two web site. In short, someone who is polyamorous wants to have romantic and / or sexual relationships with more than one person at a time or would like to and is open about it with each partner/relationship. There are many configurations possible, depending on the person, the person's wants, and his/her/their situation. Please click here to see my page on how I am a Polyamory - affirming psychologist. 

Sex -  Depending on context this term refers to biological categories of gender experience (e.g. type of genetalia ); type of activity (e.g. making love; (Bornstein 1996)).

Transgender - A label of a person who identifies as such; A label of a person who is “breaking or going against gender boundaries” (Green, 2004, pgs. 12-13)

Transgender Umbrella - A way to categorize people of transgender experience, history, and/or identity. Please see 15transumbrella on for a pictorial representation of this idea

Trans(s)sexual - This term refers to a person who feels that their[1] gender identity does not align with their physical body (similar to Gilrshick, 2008). 


[1] The term, “their” is used to denote people of all genders, not just female and male peoples.