Policy Glossary

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Biological Sex

A person's biological sex usually refers to status as female, male, or intersex depending on the person's chromosomes, reproductive organs, or other characteristics.

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Gender

The socially constructed roles, behaviors, expressions, and identities of girls, women, boys, men, and gender-diverse individuals. Gender identity is not binary or static and exists along a continuum and can change over time. Gender includes an individual's gender identity and gender expression.

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Gender Expression

Gender-related traits that may or may not be consistent with traits typically associated with a person's biological sex. External manifestations of gender, expressed through one's name, pronouns, clothing, haircut, behavior, voice, or body characteristics.

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Gender Identity

A person's sense of being either male, female, both, or neither. This may be different from what is traditionally associated with the person's biological sex.

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Gender-Affirming

Helping or enabling a person, especially a transgender person, to live according to their gender identity.

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Intersex

A general term used for a variety of situations in which a person has reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn't fit the boxes of "female" or "male".

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Non-binary

An umbrella term for people with gender identities that fall somewhere outside of the traditional conceptions of strictly either female or male. People with non-binary gender identities may or may not use more specific terms to describe their genders (e.g., agender, genderqueer, gender fluid, two spirit, bigender, pangender, gender nonconforming, gender variant).

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Transgender

An umbrella term for persons whose gender identity, gender expression, or behavior does not conform to that typically associated with their biological sex.

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