Sexual Identity

Besides gender, ethnicity, age, and religion, sexual identity is also a major contributing factor to a person’s identity. Sexual identity refers to a person’s elementary conception of his or her sexual nature. The fundamental aspect of sexual identity is how a person perceives him- or herself and how that person wishes to be perceived by others.

In addition to biological and social gender, sexual identity also includes sexual orientation, which refers to the object of a person’s sexuality. One’s sexual orientation may be focused on the other sex (heterosexual), on the same sex (homosexual), or on both sexes (bisexual).

The diversity dimension sexual identity also includes transgender people, who cannot or can only partially identify with their biological sexual characteristics. The transgender group also includes people who do not want to be characterized by the gender role assigned to them at birth on the basis of their sexual characteristics at all or only to an insufficient extent.
Representative studies estimate the proportion of lesbians and gays at seven percent of the entire population. It may thus be assumed that there are roughly 1500 students and 300 employees with a homosexual orientation at the University of Freiburg (as of 2010). It is estimated that ca. 0.002% of the population belongs to the group of transgender people, i.e., ca. one employee and one student at the University of Freiburg. The University of Freiburg thus strives to contribute proactively to a society that accepts various sexual identities and to create an environment at the university in which employees and students of every sexual identity feel welcome.
 

Legal Foundations in the Area Sexual Identity [PDF] (German)