A Multilingual Analysis of the Terminology of Sexual Identity

The terminology of sexual identity has been shown growing interest for a while now, however, due to its highly politicised state, it remains somewhat fluid and inconsistent. Against this backdrop, this paper investigates how different structurally and culturally distinct languages – English, Russian, and Italian – verbalise the concepts related to sexual identity. This exploration is carried out through a multilingual analysis of the terminology of sexual identity in the three languages, highlighting the challenges related to cross-linguistic equivalence. The terminological data resulting from said analysis is then showcased in the SIT (Sexual Identity Terminology) terminology resource.