At birth, children are assigned to a specific gender, usually female or male, based on physical characteristics. This assignment can be consistent for a person throughout their life – or not. Gender identity describes the self-determined/chosen and lived/experienced affiliation of a person to a particular gender. It does not necessarily correspond to the gender assigned at birth. A person can see themselves as a man, a woman, between these two genders or completely different.
CONCEPTS OF GENDER IDENTITY
✱ Female
Woman/belonging to the female gender.
✱ Male
Man/belonging to the male gender.
✱ Cis
The (self-determined, perceived, lived) gender corresponds to the gender assigned at birth.
sex assigned at birth.
✱ Trans*
The (self-determined, perceived, lived) gender does not correspond to the gender assigned at birth.
✱ Non-binary
The person feels neither male nor female – has parts of both, or defines themselves completely outside of these categories.
✱ Inter*
Intersex can refer not only to physical sexual characteristics, but also to a person’s own lived gender identity. However, intersex people do not automatically define themselves as inter* – some live as a woman or a man, for example.