Young Wrexham

Gender Identity

Gender identity is the person’s identification of what gender they believe they are and it’s not always the gender they were assigned at birth.

Traditionally gender identity was either male or female although most of today’s society has moved away from the binary system and has accepted that there is a third gender for people who do not necessarily wish to be exclusively identified as one gender.

There are also some transgender people who say they wake up one morning feeling like a man and another when they feel like a woman. This can lead to confusion particularly when transitioning from one gender to another, for example a man who has had a sex change but who is romantically attracted to a woman becomes a lesbian because their original sexual orientation hasn’t changed.

Transgender

Transgender is used to describe individuals whose gender doesn’t match their physical bodies. Transgender is an umbrella term and includes transexual, transvestite, cross-dresser and genderqueer amongst other.

Transexual

This can also be know as gender dysphoria. This is when an individual has feelings of belonging to a different gender or choose to live in a different gender. Surgery is an option for transsexuals, however not all transsexuals have surgery.

Androgyny

In terms of gender identity androgyny is a where someone does not fit into the typical masculine or feminine gender roles.

Pangender

Is a term for those who do not wish to be labelled as female or male in gender, as they feel that they do not fit into binary genders because they feel they are all genders.

Cisgender

If someone’s self-perception of their gender matches the sex they were assigned at birth then they are cisgender.

Sources: Out & Proud And Living With It: A guide for young people who identify as LGBT or those questioning their sexuality or gender identity by Loud & Proud, Norena @ Cardiff Wales LGBT Mardi Gras and Wikipedia.