GENERAL HEALTH INFORMATION

Gender Identity

What is gender

Gender refers to the social and cultural roles that males and females are expected to subscribe to based on their biological sex. Gender can be broken down into three main categories: gender assignment, gender identity, and gender expression.

For many people, their gender matches up with the cultural expectations of the sex they were assigned at birth. This means they’re cisgender. Other people may prefer to explore their gender.

There is a long history of gender diversity that goes back thousands of years outside of a Western context. Many Indigenous American people, for example, embraced gender fluidity prior to colonisation, as did many communities in the Asia-Pacific and African regions.

What is gender assignment?

This means that a person is categorised as either a masculine gender (boy/man) or a feminine gender (girl/woman) based on their external genitalia. This typically happens at birth or in-utero. Intersex babies are often categorised based on the appearance of their external genitalia because parents may be unaware their child is intersex.

Read Transcript

When I came out as transgender non-binary and I exposed myself to the queer community, it was a massive cultural shock. I didn't see myself represented. Often when you think of queerness you automatically equate it with white people, but that is far from true. And it's really by design that we've fallen into this trap, where as a result of histories of colonialism, gender and sexual diversity in the global South and in many of our CALD countries have been demonised or have been erased. And so we often struggle to access the knowledge and the stories of our ancestors and elders within our community who had alternative forms of kinship, sexuality, and gender.

What is gender expression?

Gender expression is how a person outwardly shows their gender identity. It includes physical expressions such as a person’s clothing, hairstyle, makeup, and social expressions such as name and pronoun choice. Some examples of gender expression are masculine, feminine, or androgynous.

Someone's gender expression may not be the same as their assigned gender.

What are pronouns?

Pronouns are the words we often use to talk about a person when we’re not using their name. There might be he/him, she/her, they/them, or other pronouns.

It is okay to be unsure how to use someone’s pronouns once you first meet them or they inform you about their preferences. A good way to start talking about gender pronouns is to offer your own. Remain open-minded and considerate.

Visit www.qlife.org.au for free and anonymous LGBTQI+ peer support and referral for people wanting to talk about sexuality, identity, gender, bodies, feelings or relationships.