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Gender Identity
- August Wei
- Avy Skolnik
- Patrick Mulkern
- Maggi Price
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Description: Gender identity refers to a person’s understanding of their own gender. It can also refer to the labels or terms one uses in describing their gender (e.g., woman, man, nonbinary, etc.). When discussing gender identity, it is also important to define “gender.” While gender is often thought to be a simple matter of “male” or “female,” gender is multifaceted and encompasses several interrelated factors like gender expression, assigned sex, gender socialization, and gender identity. Someone’s experience of gender may or may not align with their assigned sex. Because gender identity is personal, there may be as many gender identities as there are people. This article discusses gender identity as it relates to, and differs from, other gender-related factors. First, examples of gender identities are provided. Next, the relationships between gender identity, assigned sex, gender socialization, gender expression, and sexual orientation are reviewed. Then, the article outlines the different types of transphobia (e.g., interpersonal, structural, internalized). The article concludes with a discussion on cisgender privilege.