Gender Identity
Hear this word Gender Identity
Image description: A medical form with separate questions about gender identity and sex assigned at birth
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What Is It?
Gender identity is our own experience and knowledge of our gender. Gender identity includes how we feel inside ourselves. It can also include how we express our gender identity to others, which is called gender expression.
Note: Gender is a set of ideas created by a community about the behaviors, characteristics, or responsibilities of the people in their group. Some people feel their gender is an important part of who they are, and for other people their gender may be less important to them.
Some groups assume or try to assign genders to people in their communities (like with baby showers or gender reveal parties). But sometimes the way people describe, know, or understand their own gender (their gender identity) is different from the gender that a society or a community has assumed or assigned to them.
An Example
When Kate was young, people would guess that she was a boy due to her short haircut. Even at age four, Kate would correct adults by saying, “I am not a boy. I am a girl!!” Kate and many young children usually are very clear about their gender identity.
What to Know
Every glossary word connects to different parts of the Sexuality Wheel. Explore the information below to learn more.
- Some people describe their gender identity using words like woman, man, girl, or boy. Some people use words like gender non-binary, agender, genderqueer, or gender expansive to describe their gender identity.
- If someone’s gender identity does not align with the sex they were assigned at birth, they may describe themselves as transgender.
- If someone’s gender identity aligns to the sex they were assigned at birth, they may describe themselves as cisgender.
- Some people have a gender identity that is somewhere on the binary spectrum with “man/boy” on one end and “woman/female” on the other end. Some people feel they are at one end or the other, or somewhere in between. Some people feel that their gender identity does not exist on this spectrum at all.
- No one can determine another person’s gender identity for them. Only we can say what our gender identity is.
Think about
Hover or tap the cards below to reveal suggestions or ideas!
How might you describe your gender identity?
Everyone will have a different answer to this question and that is natural.
What questions do you have about gender identity?
To learn more about gender identity,explore websites, books, and other resources in the Resource Hub or visit other parts of Your Sexual Health Toolkit like our online game, Our Stories, Our Journeys: A Sexual Health Game!