Gender identity
Gender identity is a person’s internal sense of their own gender. It may or may not correspond to the sex assigned at birth.
Sex assigned at birth: The classification, usually male or female, recorded at birth based primarily on observed sex characteristics. It is the classification gender identity may or may not correspond to.
Transgender: An adjective describing people whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. The term commonly describes a relationship between gender identity and assigned sex.
Gender-affirming care: Health care that supports a person’s gender identity, which may include counseling, hormones, or surgery. Some people seek care to align their bodies or lives with their gender identity.
Minority stress: Chronic stress arising from stigma, discrimination, and social exclusion experienced by members of marginalized groups. Anti-trans stigma can create sustained stress for people whose gender identity is marginalized.
Gender expression: The outward communication of gender through appearance, behavior, and other forms of presentation. It is how gender may be expressed outwardly, distinct from internal identity.
Cisgender: An adjective describing people whose gender identity corresponds with the sex they were assigned at birth. It names a common alignment between identity and assigned sex.
Legal gender recognition: The procedures by which a government records a person’s gender in official documents. Official records can recognize a gender identity distinct from the original birth assignment.
Gender-affirming practice: An approach that respects and supports a person’s self-described gender without presuming its form or outcome. Respectful practice treats a person’s stated identity as the basis for interaction.
Gender: A set of social meanings, roles, and identities associated with sex and gender categories. Gender identity is an individual sense within the broader concept of gender.
Non-binary gender: Gender identities that are not exclusively male or female. It describes identities that do not fit exclusively into the two-category model.