Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI)

Transgender is a term that includes the many ways that people's gender identities can be different from the sex they were assigned at birth. There are a lot of different terms transgender people use to describe themselves include trans, trans*, trans male/trans female. It is always best to use the language and labels that the person prefers.

Two Spirit refers to a person who identifies as having both a masculine and a feminine spirit, and is used by some Indigenous people to describe their sexual, gender, and/or spiritual identity. As an umbrella term it may encompass same-sex attraction and a wide variety of gender variance, including people who might be described in Western culture as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, gender queer, cross-dressers or who have multiple gender identities.

Gender non-conforming is a broad term referring to people who do not behave in a way that conforms to the traditional expectations of their gender, or whose gender expression does not fit neatly into a category. While many also identify as transgender, not all gender non-conforming people do.

From: LGBTQIA Resource Center, (2020). LGBTQIA Resource Center Glossary. https://lgbtqia.ucdavis.edu/educated/glossary

Related Terms: Non-binary, AFAB (assigned female at birth), AMAB (assigned male at birth), cisgender, androgynous, affirmed gender, deadnaming, gender expansive, genderfluid, transphobia