Gender Identity

Gender identity is an internal sense of belonging to or being a gender, regardless of physical sexual characteristics. Most people identify as the gender that they were assigned at birth. They are described as 'cisgender' by the transgender community, who do not identify with their assigned birth genders.

Binary gender
As the term implies, there are two binary genders, male and female, or man and woman. These genders are the only ones recognized in Western society. There is an assumption that people will come to identify as their assigned gender- those assigned female at birth as women and male at birth as men. Binary transgender people subvert this assumption in that they identify as the binary genders they were not assigned: female-assigned trans people as men and male-assigned trans people as women.

Non-binary gender
Non-binary gender is any gender that exists outside of the gender binary- that is, is not described by just "male" or "female".

Fluidity
Gender identity can remain stable or shift over the course of an individual's life. Genderfluid people experience frequent shifts in gender identity.