Key Takeaways
- Gender identity is a person’s internal experience of gender, which may be different from the sex assigned at birth.
- There are many different gender identities, such as non-binary, agender, and two-spirit.
- People choose how to express their gender with different pronouns, names, clothing, and behaviors.
Gender is separate from sex. Although genetic factors usually define a person’s biological sex, people determine their own gender identity.
Explore what gender identity is and find out the definitions of several unique gender identities. Discover where individuals can find support if they experience gender dysphoria.
What Is Gender Identity?
Because a person’s sex and gender identity are separate, it’s essential to know the difference between them.
Sex
A person’s sex is often based on biological factors, such as their sex chromosomes, reproductive organs, and hormones.
Sex is determined by more than Xs and Ys
- chromosomal pattern (XX vs. XY)
- nature of gonads (ovary vs. testes)
- predominance of circulating sex hormones (estrogen vs. androgen)
- anatomy of genitalia and secondary sexual characters
Sex is typically assigned at birth depending on the appearance of external genitalia. However, it isn’t always black and white, and the sex assigned at birth may need to be changed.
Someone can have the XX or XY chromosomes that people associate with typical males and females, but their reproductive organs, genitals, or both can look and function differently.
Others do not have the standard XX or XY, and can be missing an X or have an extra X or extra Y. All of these are known as “differences of sex development (DSD).” People may also refer to this as intersex, ambiguous sex, or hermaphrodite.
Typically, people will identify with the terms “male,” “female,” or “intersex” regarding a person’s sex.
Gender
The World Health Organization (WHO) perceives gender as a social construct that people typically describe as femininity and masculinity. This includes stereotypical gender norms, behaviors, roles, and expectations.
In many Western cultures, people have binary categories for gender and associate femininity with women and masculinity with men, but this social construct varies from society to society.
Gender Identity
Gender identity is someone’s internal experience of gender and how they choose to express themselves externally. We cannot assume someone’s gender identity based on their chromosomes, genitalia, clothing, roles, or otherwise. Gender identity may evolve and change over time.
There are two overarching categories of gender identity:
- Cisgender: Someone who is cisgender identifies with the sex they were assigned at birth. For example, a cisgender woman identifies with being a female, the sex assigned at birth.
- Transgender: An umbrella term encompassing everyone who experiences and identifies with a different gender than the one they were assigned at birth. The word also encompasses those who identify as a gender other than man or woman, including nonbinary and genderfluid.
Gender expression has two overarching categories as well:
- Conforming: the individual’s behavior, clothing, and appearance are consistent with what is expected by society.
- Non-conforming: the individual veers away from the norms of society when it comes to the way they express their gender. Both cis- and transgender people can be gender non-conforming. For example, cisgender women do not necessarily conform to all feminine constructs in terms of roles, activities, domestic responsibilities, clothing preferences, hairstyles, etc.
People can use different pronouns, and modify their name, their appearance, clothing style, and behaviors in accordance to the gender(s) they identify with, and with the ways they choose to express their gender.
List of Gender Identities
For those who have an incongruent experience between their sex assigned at birth and their experience of gender, there are many different gender identities that may resonate better, including gender neutral, non-binary, agender, pangender, genderqueer, two-spirit, third gender, and all, none, or a combination of these.
The following list explains a few of them:
- Agender: Someone who doesn’t identify with one particular gender and may consider themselves to be gender neutral or doesn’t have a dominant gender at all. They may be flexible, open, and not worried about gender norms and labels.
- Androgyne: Sometimes referred to as androgynous, this is someone whose gender is blended with both feminine and masculine characteristics.
- Bigender: Someone who identifies as bigender has the experience of two genders, but not strictly male and female genders. They often display some degree of both culturally feminine and masculine roles.
- Butch: Women, particularly lesbians, tend to use this term to describe how they express masculinity or what society defines as masculinity. However, the LGBTQIA Resource Center notes that “butch” can also be used as a gender identity in itself.
- Demigender: This term is used to describe someone who partially identifies with a particular gender, but not necessarily the sex they were assigned at birth. They may label themselves as demiboy or demigirl.
- Gender expansive: The LGBTQIA Resource Center defines this as an umbrella term used for those who expand their culture’s commonly held interpretations of gender. This includes expectations for the way gender is expressed, identities, roles, and perceived gender norms. Gender-expansive people include those who are trans, non-binary, and those whose gender broadens society’s notion of what gender is.
- Genderfluid: Someone who identifies as gender-fluid has a presentation and gender identity that shifts between genders, and may shift and evolve over time. They may also experience gender in a way that is outside of society’s expectations of gender.
- Gender outlaw: Someone who refuses to allow society’s definition of “female” or “male” to define what they are.
- Genderqueer: Somebody who identifies as genderqueer has a gender identity that does not fit neatly into male or female gender identity, or masculine versus feminine expressions. They may feel they are neither, or both, or a combination of various gender identities including male, female, and non-binary.
- Masculine of center: This term is typically used by lesbians and trans people, who lean more towards masculine expressions and experiences of gender. One can also be feminine of center, which would be the opposite.
- Nonbinary: Someone who is nonbinary doesn’t experience gender within the gender binary of male and female. They may also experience overlap with a variety of gender expressions, such as being gender non-conforming.
- Omnigender: Someone who experiences and possesses all genders.
- Polygender and pangender: Someone who experiences and displays aspects of multiple genders.
- Trans: This term is more inclusive because it includes those who identify as nonbinary and genderless, according to the LGBTQIA Resource Center.
- Two-Spirit: An umbrella term that encompasses a variety of sexualities and genders in Indigenous Native American communities. There are various definitions of Two-Spirit, and Indigenous Native American people may or may not use it to describe their experiences and feelings of masculinity and femininity. It’s a cultural term that’s reserved for those who identify as Indigenous Native Americans.
History of Gender Identity
Gender identity and sexual orientation are not the same things, but there can be some overlap. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual identities have been present in various ways throughout history. All cultures have included, with different degrees of acceptance, those who practice same-sex relations and those whose gender identity, and gender expression test current norms.
And more recently, issues of sexuality and gender have been highly politicized. The last fifty years have witnessed a rise in political activism surrounding the concept of sexual orientation and gender identity, largely influenced by opposing political parties and religious communities. There is a constant push-pull toward laws and policies that either move toward or away from acceptance, equality, affirmation, and support. In some societies, this can be a matter of life and death.
Gender Identity and Mental Health
People who are gender diverse or those who don’t identify with the gender they were assigned at birth may have a variety of stressful experiences that contribute to an increased risk of mental health issues, such as:
However, it’s essential to note that gender diversity, on its own, is not a mental health disorder. The diagnosis of “gender identity disorder” was removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) in 2013. It has been replaced by “gender dysphoria” which describes the distress that someone may experience when their gender identity does not match their sex.
Society’s Perception of Various Genders
Some everyday experiences that can increase someone’s vulnerability to developing mental health difficulties are:
- Feelings of distress because your gender identity does not match your assigned sex at birth.
- Feeling uncomfortable with your primary and secondary sex characteristics that do not match your identity, and desiring to have the opposite sex characteristics or no sex characteristics at all
- Feeling “different” or separate from people around you
- Being bullied because of your gender identity and expression
- Feeling pressured to dismiss your feelings concerning your gender identity
- Fear or worry about your gender identity being accepted by your loved ones, alongside the chance of being rejected or isolated
- Feeling unsupported or misunderstood by loved ones
- Feeling stressed and concerned about the pressure to conform to your biological sex.
These pressures can be very stressful, especially when combined with other issues in your life, such as managing school, finding a job, forming relationships, and making sense of who you are and your place in the world.
Resources and Support
If you’re struggling to come to terms with your gender identity or are being bullied or feeling isolated or depressed, there are many resources available that can provide the support and care that you deserve:
- The Trevor Project, which is an LGBTQ+ organization that provides resources, education, and support
- The National Center for Transgender Equality, an organization that provides support for transgender people
- PFLAG, an organization that provides assistance, education, and aid throughout the United States, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico
- Trans Youth Family Allies, a website that offers resources and education to family members, friends, and allies of gender variant, gender questioning, and transgender people
- Gender Spectrum, a resource and education site.
- World Professional Association for Transgender Health, a website with a directory of healthcare providers for transgender people.
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
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