What is gender identity?

So what exactly is Gender Identity? 

In the words of Gender Spectrum, gender identity is 'our internal experience and naming of our gender. It can correspond to or differ from the sex we were assigned at birth'.

Gender identity is not a binary concept, this is simply how we have understood (or oversimplified) gender. The reality is that gender identity exists on a spectrum, and this can include people who are transgender, cis gender, non-binary, gender queer, and other gender identities. 'Because we are provided with limited language for gender, it may take a person quite some time to discover, or create, the language that best communicates their internal experience. Likewise, as language evolves, a person’s name for their gender may also evolve. This does not mean their gender has changed, but rather that the words for it are shifting.'

'Each dimension of gender is informed by our unique intersection of identities, experiences, and personal characteristics. We are more than our body, gender identity and gender expression: we are also our race, ethnicity, class, faith, sense of geographic place, family history, and more.

​Our gender is personal because, while we share some of these aspects of self with others, the way that all of these identities, influences and characteristics come together is unique to each of us'. Read more here https://www.genderspectrum.org/quick-…/understanding-gender/

Chris Warren-Dickins LLB MA LPC
Psychotherapist, (Licensed Professional Counselor), Ridgewood NJ 07450
www.exploretransform.com               201-779-6917              chris@exploretransform.com