Gender identity

A person’s perception of their own gender based on society’s system of categorization. In most societies there is a basic binary gender division between men and women, but some societies also have a third gender or more. In our society today, a person can identify as male, female, gender fluid or non-binary, although most institutional identity mechanisms (such as the passport) only allow for the binary male-female option. Gender identity may correspond to the gender assigned at birth or it may differ from it. In the first case, people are referred to as being cisgender, while in the second they are referred to as being transgender or non-binary. Gender identity should not be confused with sexual identity (a person’s perception of themselves in terms of their sexuality) or sexual orientation (the sexual inclination towards people of a particular sex or gender).