One’s sex is typically assigned at birth and classified as either male or female. Understanding the distinctions and connections between these concepts is critical to understanding the definitions that follow.īirth-Assigned Sex - the designation that refers to a person’s biological, morphological, hormonal, and genetic composition. This is particularly true for “gender” and “sex.” Additionally, people’s conception of these terms is often quite limited and rooted in cisheteronormative and binary understandings of gender, sex, and sexuality.
Their definitions are sometimes collapsed and the terms are used interchangeably.
Gender, sex, and sexuality are often misunderstood terms that are distinct, but also connected. To understand LGBTQIA2S+ identities and communities we must first distinguish three important concepts (gender, sex, and sexuality) and discuss the version of the acronym we are using on this website and in our educational programs and resources. You can email and/or call the Gender and Sexuality Campus Center at or (517) 353-9520. If there is a term that you feel should be included here, please let us know. We understand that language around sexuality and gender is always changing and we will review these terms regularly. The definitions provided in this document reflect the current general understanding of these terms. Identity terms mean very particular things to different individuals. It is by no means a comprehensive list, but it is a good place for us to start. These supplementary terms sort of triangulate me in the universal gender map, which I think is super neat.This is a list of carefully researched and thoughtfully discussed definitions for key gender and sexuality terms. When I'm introducing myself in trans spaces, I will often say, 'Hi, my name is AJ! I use they/them pronouns, and identify as an AFAB transmasculine nonbinary person.' I don't always disclose that I am AFAB or transmasculine, as those are supplementary pieces to my core nonbinary identity, but adding them in helps clarify to those around me (and sometimes myself, on dysphoric days) where I fall in terms of all the infinite possible identities. Transmasculine, to me, means I am transgender with a masculine of center presentation. I don't identify with any gender, intrinsically, but know that my body and mind feel comfortable in clothing that is most commonly associated with men/males/masculinity, as they are currently defined and understood by societies dominant binary narrative. Transmasculine, to me, is a secondary layer of my identity (the base layer being my nonbinary identity). When I learned of the word transmasculine, it was like a cool drink of water on a hot day, incredibly refreshing and satisfying.
I would often see words like 'transman' or 'ftm' or other transgender identities, but these all seemed deeply rooted in the gender binary. "As an AFAB (assigned female at birth) person who identifies as nonbinary and is medically transitioning via hormones and (eventual) surgery, I had a hard time developing my language around what all that means to me in terms of my transition and outward expression. What I appreciate most is that I don’t enjoy terms like 'nonconforming' and 'non-binary,' because I’m not a 'non' thing, my gender isn’t a lack of conformity or a lack of binary-ness, it is its own active, multi-faceted, nuanced and – well, queer – thing." - Perri Hawley, 29, New York, NY I, personally, also don’t enjoy how terms like 'gender-fluid' and 'androgynous' seem to conflate 'gender identity' and 'gender expression' – as if wearing 'feminine' clothes means feeling or being feminine, for instance, which it doesn’t in my experience. I don’t experience a 'fluidity' in my gender identity, so much as a constant state of queerness (it’s not so much that I’m multiple genders or back and forth between genders as it is that none of them quite fit and it all feels a little queer). Just as you could call 'cisgender,' 'gender straight,' you can call any number of gender identities 'genderqueer.' I identify as genderqueer but not as gender fluid – for instance. "Genderqueer is a term that's used by folks who might otherwise identify as nonconforming, non-binary, agender, demigender, gender-fluid, bigender, or any number of other terms.