What is gender?

‘Gender’ has nothing to do with your genitalia, or who you’re attracted to. Gender is how you feel about expressing yourself in a society. Not always confining yourself to the ideas of ‘Masculine’ or ‘Feminine’.

You define your gender, and you may recognize and (re)discover it at any age.

Your Gender = Gender Expression + Gender Identity

• Gender Identity

  Describes how someone feels on the inside. Pronouns become important when talking about someone’s gender identity. Some may identify with pronouns such as ‘he’, ‘she’, ’they’, and otherwise.

• Gender Expression

  Gender Expression describes how someone wants to present their gender to the world.

Types Of Gender Identity

• Cisgender (Cis) - a person whose gender identity aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth. Eg: a person assigned as female at birth, and identifies as female.
• Gender Fluid - a person who does not identify themselves as having a fixed gender. They may move between two or more gender identities and expressions.
• Transgender (Trans)- a person whose gender identity does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. Eg: a person assigned as a female at birth, but identifies as male (transman) or non-binary.+ many more variations!

Transgender is an umbrella term.

It includes people identifying with a gender that’s different from their sex at birth.It also includes non-binary (enby) people who do not identify with the gender binary (of male/female) at all.

Undergoing reassignment surgery is not a prerequisite to a person’s identity as a transgender person.

Further Reading:

Resources for understanding transgender and gender fluid experiences:

• The Third Gender Of Ancient India - YouthKiAwaaz
• 9 questions about gender identity and being transgender you were too embarrassed to ask - Vox
• Trans + Gender Identity - TREVOR SUPPORT CENTER
• Enby Spoken Histories

Accounts you can follow:

• Nazariya Queer Feminist Resource Group (@nazariya.qfrg)
• Transmen Collective - (@transmencollective)
• Non Binary India (@non_binary_india)
• Non Binary Culture (@nonbinaryculture)
• Queerabad (@queerabad)
• Yes, We Exist (@yesweexistindia)
• Gaysi Family - (@gaysifamily)
• Dr. Trinetra Gummaraju (@ind0ctrination)
• Esvi Anbu (@anbu_esvi)
• Sappho For Equality (@sappho.for.equality)

Video Resources:

• Vice Asia - 10 Questions You Wanted to Ask a Gender Fluid Person:
• Understanding Gender Fluidity with Durga Gawde:
• Transgender Rights in India:
• Meet Transgender People in India:

Diverse gender identities are neither new, nor “western”.

They are represented in all walks of life, across all nationalities, ethnic backgrounds, and in all social and economic groups.

We need need to build a world that’s safe, inclusive, respectful and affirming of all gender experiences.