I've heard a lot of different terms about gender. What do they mean?

Speaker: Tracy Cavaligos, PsyD, Clinical Psychologist, CHC's Catherine T. Harvey Center for Clinical Services

Tracy Cavaligos, PsyD: Hi, I'm Dr. Tracy Cavaligos, a clinical psychologist at Children's Health Council (CHC). So a question we've received is, "I've heard a lot of different terms about gender, and I'm not sure what they mean or when to use them?" That's a great question. Language changes frequently. As we better understand the world and ourselves as well as how words are used in different contexts, as well as how words are used in different contexts, the use of language is going to change over time. the use of language is going to change over time. Some common terms to know when talking about gender include gender identity, gender expression, assigned gender and affirmed gender. Gender identity is internal sense of gender. Gender identity is internal sense of gender. If we feel like a woman, a man, non-binary or another gender. Gender expression means how someone displays or expresses their identity. This can be through things such as clothing and hair. Assigned gender is what is placed on a birth certificate when we're born. And affirmed gender can also be described as lived gender, and it's a gender that a person lives and wishes to be known as. You're likely to also have heard of cisgender and transgender and their descriptors as well. Cisgender means someone who identifies with the gender they were assigned at birth, and transgender describes someone who does not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. Hope this helps.