Gender identity

Gender identity is a person's deeply felt internal sense of their own gender, which may or may not match the sex they were assigned at birth. It is distinct both from sex assigned at birth and from sexual orientation (who a person is attracted to). This system sorts people by how they internally experience and name their own gender.

Self-identified; this is how the member describes their own gender, which is distinct from sex assigned at birth and from sexual orientation. (Self-identified; reflects contemporary understanding of gender identity developed across the 20th and 21st centuries.)

Groups

• Woman — A person whose internal sense of gender is female.
• Man — A person whose internal sense of gender is male.
• Transgender woman — A woman who was assigned male at birth.
• Transgender man — A man who was assigned female at birth.
• Non-binary — A person whose gender is not exclusively that of a man or a woman.
• Genderqueer — A person whose gender identity falls outside or challenges conventional binary categories of man and woman.
• Genderfluid — A person whose gender identity shifts or varies over time rather than remaining fixed.
• Agender — A person who identifies as having no particular gender or as being without gender.
• Bigender — A person who identifies with two genders, either simultaneously or shifting between them.
• Demigender — A person who feels a partial, rather than full, connection to a particular gender.
• Two-Spirit — An identity specific to some Indigenous North American cultures, encompassing varied gender and social roles within those cultural traditions.
• Questioning — A person who is currently exploring or uncertain about their gender identity.

Related topics

• Sex assigned at birth
• Personal pronouns
• Gender expression
• How central gender is to you
• Gender-role traits (BSRI)

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