"Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender."
A person's sense of being male, female, a blend of both or neither. It's how they internally perceive, experience and define their gender.
Biological sex: This topic involves understanding the differences between male, female, and intersex biology and how it impacts an individual’s physical characteristics.
Gender identity: This topic involves understanding the internal sense of one’s gender and how it may differ from their biological sex.
Gender expression: This topic involves understanding how one presents their gender to others through clothing, behavior, and other cultural markers.
Gender roles: This topic involves understanding the social expectations and norms associated with gender, such as how men and women should behave or dress.
Gender binary: This topic involves understanding the traditional view of gender as only male or female, and how it disregards the experiences of non-binary or gender-nonconforming individuals.
Gender spectrum: This topic involves understanding the wide range of gender identities and expressions beyond the traditional binary.
Transgender: This topic involves understanding individuals who identify as a different gender than the one they were assigned at birth.
Cisgender: This topic involves understanding individuals who identify as the gender they were assigned at birth.
Non-binary: This topic involves understanding individuals who do not identify as strictly male or female.
Gender dysphoria: This topic involves understanding the psychological distress that can result from the disconnect between one’s gender identity and sex assigned at birth.
Gender-affirming care: This topic involves understanding the medical and therapeutic interventions that can assist individuals in aligning their gender expression with their gender identity.
Intersectionality: This topic involves understanding how gender intersects with other identity categories, such as race, sexuality, class, and disabilities.
Cisgender: Individuals who identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. For example, a person who was identified as male at birth and identifies as male.
Transgender: Individuals who identify with a gender different from the gender they were assigned at birth.
Nonbinary: Individuals who do not identify exclusively as male or female but instead fall somewhere along the gender spectrum.
Genderqueer: A term used to describe individuals who identify outside of the traditional binary gender system of male and female.
Agender: Individuals who do not identify with any gender.
Two-Spirit: A term used by some indigenous cultures to describe individuals who embody both male and female spirits.
Genderfluid: Individuals who do not have a fixed gender identity and may move between or among different gender identities over time.
Demigender: Individuals who partially identify with a particular gender. For example, a demigirl might identify partially as a woman but also partially as another gender or as no gender at all.
Bigender: Individuals who identify as having two distinct gender identities at the same time.
Androgynous: Individuals who present a blend of masculine and feminine traits or who do not exhibit strongly gendered characteristics.
"Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it."
"While a person may express behaviors, attitudes, and appearances consistent with a particular gender role, such expression may not necessarily reflect their gender identity."
"The term gender identity was coined by psychiatry professor Robert J. Stoller in 1964."
"The gender binary refers to a basic division between gender attributes assigned to males and females in most societies."
"Some of those people may call themselves transgender, gender non-binary, genderqueer, gender expansive, or something else."
"Some societies have third gender categories."
"Gender identity develops surprisingly rapidly in the early childhood years, and in the majority of instances appears to become at least partially irreversible by the age of 3 or 4."
"Considerable scientific evidence has emerged demonstrating a durable biological element underlying gender identity."
"There do not seem to be external forces that genuinely cause individuals to change gender identity."
"Essentialists argue that gender identity is determined at birth by biological and genetic factors."
"Social constructivists argue that gender identity and the way it is expressed are socially constructed, instead determined by cultural and social influences."
"The term gender identity was...popularized by the controversial psychologist John Money."
"The gender binary includes expectations of masculinity and femininity in all aspects of sex and gender: biological sex, gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation."
"In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the individual's gender identity."
"With exceptions, 'Gender identity develops surprisingly rapidly in the early childhood years.'"
"Individuals may make choices due to other factors in their lives, but there do not seem to be external forces that genuinely cause individuals to change gender identity."
"Gender identity and the way it is expressed are socially constructed, instead determined by cultural and social influences."
"Individuals may make choices due to other factors in their lives."
"Gender identity...appears to become at least partially irreversible by the age of 3 or 4."