Transcript Gender + Identity + Sexual Orientation 101

Gender + Identity +
Sexual Orientation 101
The Facts, The Issues
Gender, Self, and Society
• Psychologists believe that a person’s core identity, or
sense of self, is based on three major components:
gender identity, sexual orientation and gender
expression.
What is meant by Gender?
• Gender: Socially constructed through cultural rules,
ideologies, and expected behaviours for individuals of
certain biological sexes; sometimes classified as
masculine or feminine.
• It is a performance of what is culturally understood as
appropriate gender roles (act like a man – be masculine,
be a woman – act feminine; a binary of rigid ideals).
What is meant by Sex?
• Sex: The way in which organisms (including humans) are
divided into classifications of male or female, usually
based on chromosomes, hormonal profiles, and/or
reproductive organs; usually classified as male or female
based on biological characteristics.
Sex + Gender
• XX (female) or XY (male)
chromosomes
• Eggs or sperm
• Facial hair
• Breasts
• “female”/“male”
• Masculine
• Feminine
• Man
• Woman
Gender Identity
• Your deep inner feeling of gender regardless of anatomy
(e.g. girl, women, boy, man, transgendered, two spirited
etc.)
Sexual Orientation
• Who you are romantically/physically attracted to (e.g.
gay, lesbian, bisexual, heterosexual, asexual etc.)
Gender Expression
• Refers to the external attributes, behaviour, appearance,
dress, etc. by which people express themselves and
through which others perceive that person’s gender.
Gender Expression
• Your self expression through hairstyle, body language,
clothing, interests, way of moving, choice of name and
pronoun etc.
• It may be influenced by gender identity, sexual
orientation, racialization, culture, ability, age and socioeconomic status.
Men & Women
Two Column Chart
• Even though there are men in every country in the world,
there are striking differences between cultures on what
constitutes masculine behaviour.
• The same is true for women and what constitutes
feminine behavior.
Men & Women
Two Column Chart
• Use the additional handout to list personal
characteristics, behaviours, occupations, physical
appearances, etc. that are generally expected of
girls/women and boys/men in your/our culture.
Song: When I Was Boy
• See the additional handout and read the song lyrics +
respond to the questions found at the end of the song.
What we should express =
whatever we want in order to be
ourselves.
This Guy Dancing To Beyoncé Is
More Important Than Whatever
You’re Doing Right Now
• Chris Koo - Crazy In Love Dance Cover
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdiGBI6yngw
Gender Identity 101
• An individual’s sense of identity is made up of many
different elements.
• Some of those elements are individual.
Gender Identity 101
• Statements like “I am good at math” or “I have five
sisters” represent personal experiences.
• They help define you as a good student or as a member
of a family.
Gender Identity 101
• Other elements of identity are related to membership in
a specific group.
• For example, “I moved here from the Dominican
Republic” means that part of your identity in Canada is as
an immigrant.
Gender Identity 101
• Another part of your identity is (likely) that English is
your first or main language of communication.
• Factors such as racialization/ethnicity, gender, sexual
orientation, religion and physical ability can also form
part of how you know yourself and how others know
you.
Gender Identity Activity
• In this activity, you will analyze a photographs that
addresses an element or elements of identity.
Gender Identity Activity:
Objectives
• To recognize that a person’s sense of identity has many
components
• To explore some difficulties that may arise for people
whose identities include words like “transgender”
Gender Identity Activity:
Essential Questions
• How do people identify themselves and how do others
identify them?
• What are some components of an individual’s identity?
Gender Identity Activity
• See the activity handout and follow the instructions.
Transgender
• 1) A person who lives as a member of a gender other than
that expected based on anatomical sex. Sexual
orientation varies and is not dependent on gender
identity.
• 2) People whose life experience includes existing in more
than one gender. This may include people who identify as
transsexual, and people who describe themselves as
being on a “gender spectrum” or as living outside the
categories of “man” or “woman.”
Gunner Scott, a female-to-male (F2M) transgendered person, is
director of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition. He
speaks about the appearances of transgendered persons on TV
reality shows.
Your Gender Identity Reflection
• Take a moment to reflect on your own gender identity,
gender expression, and sexual orientation.
• Respond to the following 4 questions (see additional
handout):
Reflection #1:
Your Gender Identity
1. What are the traditional expectations in your culture(s) for each
aspect/category of your identity?
2. In what ways are the traditional expectations in your culture
based on gender?
3. In what ways do you conform to gender expectations? In what
ways are you different?
4. What are the consequences of not conforming to gender
expectations in your culture?
Common Beliefs about Gender
• Over the past few decades, society’s ideas about the
equality of women and men have progressed
significantly.
• However, outdated and oppressive views of gender
continue to circulate in our everyday understandings of
what it means to be human.
Common Beliefs about Gender
• In order to resist reinforcing these harmful beliefs, it is
important to be conscious of the assumptions and values
we have about gender.
The Common Beliefs/Assumptions
About Gender
• 1. Gender exists in a binary: everyone is either a man or a
woman.
• 2. Gender identity is realized by age two and does not
change.
• 3. Gender is determined by one’s anatomy.
The Common Beliefs/Assumptions
About Gender
• 4. Males/men should have a masculine style of behaviour
and females/women should have a feminine style of
behaviour.
• 5. Feminine males and masculine females are abnormal
or disordered.
Groups that are Marginalized
• There are two groups of people who are especially
marginalized by these common beliefs about gender:
• 1) those whose style of behaviour is gender nonconforming
• 2) those that are transgender
Gender Non-conforming
• A child’s style of behaviour is considered gender nonconforming when it consistently falls outside of what is
considered ‘normal’ for their assigned biological sex.
Gender Non-conforming
• This may be indicated by choices in games, clothing, and
playmates.
• For example, a boy who wants to take ballet, wear pink,
and play primarily with girls is gender non-conforming.
Gender Non-conforming
• Gender non-conforming children may become gender
normative over time or their style of behaviour may
continue to defy gender expectations as adults.
Gender Non-conforming
• Some of these children grow up to be gay, lesbian or
bisexual, asexual and some grow up to be heterosexual.
• Some of these children are or will become transgender.
Reflection #2:
Common Assumptions about
Gender
1. Which of these beliefs do you hold to be true?
2.How are people pressured to conform to these beliefs?
3. Whose identities are marginalized by these beliefs?
4.What are the impacts of these beliefs on people who do
not conform to them?
Terms To Clarify
• Gay – Term used in some cultural settings to represent
males who are attracted to males in a romantic, erotic
and/or emotional sense. Not all men who engage in
“homosexual behavior” identify as gay, and as such this
label should be used with caution.
Terms To Clarify
• Lesbian – Term used to describe female-identified people
attracted romantically, erotically, and/or emotionally to
other female-identified people.
Terms To Clarify
• Bisexual – A person emotionally, physically, and/or
sexually attracted to males/men and females/women.
This attraction does not have to be equally split between
genders and there may be a preference for one gender
over others.
Terms To Clarify
• Bisexuality: Setting the Record "Straight" (5:31 mins)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1xnnY7oKtI
Terms To Clarify
• Pansexual – A group which is open to members of all
sexual orientations or gender identities including
straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transsexual; a person
who is sexually interested in other people regardless of
gender including males, females, transexuals, gender
benders, androgenous people etc.
Terms To Clarify
• Asexual – a person who is not interested in or does not
desire sexual activity, either within or outside of a
relationship. Asexuality is not the same as celibacy,
which is the willful decision to not act on sexual feelings.
asexuals, while not physically sexual-type folks, are none
the less quite capable of loving, affectionate, romantic
ties to others.
Terms To Clarify
• Asexuality is a sexual orientation, not a disorder
(10:56 mins – up to)
• http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode/2014/05/20/asexu
ality-is-a-sexual-orientation-not-a-disorder-1/
Terms To Clarify
• Transgender – a person whose felt gender identity does
not match the gender they were assigned at birth based
on their biological anatomy.
• For example, a transgender child self-identifies as a girl
but was born with the anatomy of a boy (or vice versa).
Transgender
• Some children and adults self-identify as both male and
female or neither male nor female.
• These people fit under the term ‘transgender’ as well.
Transgender
• 10 Trans Guy Myths Busted! (3:00 mins)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaiR4-cNMag
Transgender
• Transgender people have existed throughout history in
cultures all over the globe.
• Transgender History: A Six Part Series (focuses on
ancient times to today) (watch on own)
• http://www.bilerico.com/2008/02/transgender_history_tr
ans_expression_in.php
Inclusive Beliefs About Gender
• 1. Gender is a spectrum; there is a range of gender
identities between and outside of the categories of
male/man and female/woman.
• 2. Gender identity development happens from birth until
death. That gender is fluid.
Inclusive Beliefs About Gender
• 3. Gender is a product of the mind. It is influenced by
nature, nurture and context.
• 4. There is no correct style of expression for males or
females. It is healthy for people to express who they feel
they are.
Inclusive Beliefs About Gender
• 5. Being transgender or gender non-conforming is
normal and healthy.
Historical Beliefs About Gender
• Historically, gender non- conforming children have been
given a psychiatric diagnosis.
Historical Beliefs About Gender
• The manual used by psychiatrists (the DSM 5 –
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) went through a
revision and the updated version to (released in 2013) did
not list transgender or gender non-conforming children
to have a disorder.
• In 1974, the DSM II (version 2) no longer listed
homosexuality as a disorder.
The Gender Spectrum
• “The Gender Spectrum” refers to the idea that there are
many gender identities (girl/women, boy/man,
transgender, two-spirit, etc.).
The Gender Spectrum
• It acknowledges that there is a range of gender
expressions, or ways in which people externally
communicate their gender identity to others through
behaviour, clothing, haircut, voice, and other forms of
presentation.
The Gender Spectrum
• It highlights that gender expression may or may not
conform to common expectations around one’s gender
identity.
Human Sexuality 101: A Quick Guide
to Gender and Sexuality Spectrums
• How should we talk about sexuality, what is the
difference between sex and gender...and between sexual
orientation and sexual behavior?
• 3:48 minutes
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXAoG8vAyzI
The Kinsey Scale of
Gender Identity
• The Kinsey scale, also called the HeterosexualHomosexual Rating Scale, attempts to describe a
person’s sexual experience or response at a given time.
• It uses a scale from 0, meaning exclusively heterosexual,
to 6, meaning exclusively homosexual.
The Kinsey Scale of
Gender Identity
• In both the Male and Female volumes of the Kinsey
Reports, an additional grade, listed as "X", was used
for asexuality.
The Kinsey Scale of
Gender Identity
• It was first published in Sexual Behavior in the Human
Male (1948) by Alfred Kinsey, Wardell Pomeroy and
others, and was also prominent in the complementary
work Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953).
The Kinsey Scale of
Gender Identity
The Kinsey Scale of
Gender Identity
How Identity Is More Complicated
Than Society Thinks It Is
• September 12, 2014 by Ashley Mardell
• General society would have us believe that gender (and
sexuality, and romantic attraction, and countless other
identifiers) exist within a binary system. But the reality is
that identity is much more complicated than that.
• http://everydayfeminism.com/2014/09/on-spectrums/
(7:26)
The Gender Binary
• Western culture has come to view gender as a binary
concept, with two rigidly fixed options: male/man or
female/woman.
• When a child is born, a quick glance between the legs
determines the gender label that the child will carry for
life.
The Gender Binary
• But even if gender is to be restricted to basic biology, a
binary concept still fails to capture the rich variation
observed.
The Gender Binary
• Rather than just two distinct boxes, biological gender
occurs across a continuum of possibilities.
• This spectrum of anatomical variations by itself should
be enough to disregard the simplistic notion of only two
genders.
Gender Fluidity
• Gender fluidity conveys a wider, more flexible range of
gender expression, with interests and behaviors that
may even change from day to day.
Gender Fluidity
• Gender fluid children do not feel confined by restrictive
boundaries of stereotypical expectations of girls or boys.
• In other words, a child may feel they are a girl some days
and a boy on others, or possibly feel that neither term
describes them accurately.
Gender?: Intersexed
• Some people may not have clearly demarcated sexual or
reproductive anatomy and neither term describes them
accurately.
• Generally a medical practitioner will decide what the
anatomy looks more like or do a “minor” surgery to
“correct” the anatomy.
Intersexed: Q&A #1
• Q: What does intersex mean?
Intersexed: Q&A #1
• A: Someone who has an intersex condition has sexual or
reproductive anatomy that someone has decided does
not fit the standard definitions of male or female.
Intersexed: Q&A #2
• Q: Are intersex and hermaphrodite the same thing?
Intersexed: Q&A #2
• A: Hermaphrodite is an older term generally intended to
refer to the idea of someone who has full male and full
female sexual organs- a biological impossibility. The
term hermaphrodite is now considered to be out of date
and offensive to intersex people.
Intersexed: Q&A #3
• Q: Are people diagnosed as having intersex conditions at
birth?
Intersexed: Q&A #3
• A: Sometimes, but other times people don’t know they
have intersex conditions until later in life. Their condition
can be discovered at puberty, in adulthood when fertility
difficulties are examined, or during an autopsy after
someone dies in old age. Sometimes people live their
whole lives never knowing they have an intersex
condition.
Intersexed: Q&A #4
• Q: How many people count as having intersex
conditions?
Intersexed: Q&A #4
• A: That’s hard to answer, since there’s a lot of grey area in
what counts as an intersex condition. For instance, how
small does a penis have to be before it meets the criteria
of an intersex condition? This is a social decision and
may change from culture to culture.
Intersexed: Q&A #4
• However, the rate of people whose bodies differ from the
standard male or female is 1 in 100 births, while the
number of people receiving surgery to ‘normalize’ genital
appearance is 1 or 2 in 1000 births. The number of
people born without a XX or XY chromosome pairing is 1
in 1666 births.
Types of Intersex Conditions
(Not a complete list)
• See the additional handout pertaining to information on
the types of intersex conditions. Note: this is not a
complete list.
Gender Failure:
Rae Spoon and Ivan Coyote
• Canadian trans artists Ivan Coyote and Rae Spoon
perform Gender Failure, a multimedia show featuring
animation by Clyde Petersen about their hilarious and
heartbreaking attempts at fitting into the male/female
binary. They also wrote a book after this performance
with the same name.
Gender Failure:
Rae Spoon and Ivan Coyote
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n08vFSKIts
• 9 minutes and 5 seconds
Brandon Teena
• Brandon Teena (December 12, 1972 – December 31,
1993) was an American trans man who was raped and
murdered in Humboldt, Nebraska.
• His life and death were the subject of the Academy
Award-winning 1999 film Boys Don't Cry, which was
based on the documentary film The Brandon Teena Story.
The Brandon Teena Story +
Boys Don’t Cry
• Documentary (1998)
• Boys Don’t Cry Movie Trailer (1999)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYpUhVvfGeg
• 1 minute and 42 seconds
Matthew Shepard
• Matthew Wayne Shepard (December 1, 1976 – October
12, 1998) was an American student at the University of
Wyoming who was tortured and murdered near Laramie,
Wyoming in October 1998. He was attacked on the night
of October 6, and died at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort
Collins, Colorado, on October 12 from severe head
injuries.
Matthew and Brandon
• Shepard's and Teena’s murders brought national and
international attention to hate crime legislation at the
state and federal levels.
• In October 2009, the United States Congress passed the
Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes
Prevention Act, and on October 28, 2009, President
Barack Obama signed the legislation into law.
The Laramie Project
• The Laramie Project is a play by Moisés Kaufman and
members of the Tectonic Theater Project about the
reaction to the 1998 murder (hate crime) of University of
Wyoming gay student Matthew Shepard in Laramie,
Wyoming.
LGBTQI Hate Crimes In Canada
• Timeline of Hate Crimes from the 19th Century to 2014.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_LGBT_history_i
n_Canada
Spencer Chandra Herbert's office
site of homophobic attack
• Mon, Feb 24, 2014 – The Vancouver Police Hate Crime
Unit is investigating after a gay MLA constituency office
was the target of a homophobic attack.
• http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-
columbia/spencer-chandra-herbert-s-office-site-ofhomophobic-attack-1.2549647
Laverne Cox on Bullying and
Being a Trans Woman of Color
• Published on Dec 19, 2013 - In recalling an event
where she was confronted by misogyny, transphobia, and racism all at once, Laverne Cox advocates
for love and clarifies what makes a bully.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zwy5PEEa6U
(6:49)
“Justice is what love looks like in
public.”
Compare and Contrast Activity:
Common Beliefs
• Compare the list of common beliefs with the list of
inclusive beliefs (see previously provided handout = Your
Gender Identity + Beliefs Reflections).
Reflection #3:
Common Assumptions about
Gender
1. Which ideas do you hold to be true?
2.Which ideas do you have difficulty with? Spend some
time reflecting on the ideas you have difficulty with and
what the root of this difficulty might be.
Reflection #3:
Common Assumptions about
Gender
3. What might you personally stand to lose and gain by
holding these beliefs?
4. What might others stand to lose or gain if you held
these beliefs?
What are the Dominant Myths &
Facts about Gender?
Myths & Facts about Gender
• MYTH: Children and teens are too young to know their
gender identity.
Myths & Facts about Gender
• FACT: Most people become aware of their gender
identity between the ages of 18 months and 3 years.
• Many youth whose gender identities do not conform to
the expectations of their families, peers, and schools are
invisible out of fear for their safety.
Myths & Facts about Gender
• MYTH: Being transgender is just a phase.
Myths & Facts about Gender
• FACT: Some children go through phases of gender nonconformity.
• The longer a child has identified as cross-gender, the
easier it becomes to predict whether it is a phase or not.
Myths & Facts about Gender
• Regardless of the outcome, the self-esteem, mental wellbeing, and overall health of the child relies heavily on
receiving love, support, and compassion from family and
school.
Myths & Facts about Gender
• MYTH: Hormone blockers, used to delay puberty in
transgender teens, are detrimental to one’s health.
Myths & Facts about Gender
• FACT: Hormone blockers are a safe way to “buy time” as
the transgender teen decides whether to go on crosshormones.
• This treatment prevents the (often traumatic)
development of secondary sex characteristics that do not
match the person’s gender identity.
Myths & Facts about Gender
• It also prevents the need for painful and expensive
surgeries to undo these changes later in life.
• This treatment is widely endorsed by family doctors,
endocrinologists, psychologists, and other specialists
involved in transgender health programs.
Myths & Facts about Gender
• MYTH: Being transgender is a sexual orientation.
Myths & Facts about Gender
• FACT: Sexual orientation and gender identity are
different.
Myths & Facts about Gender
• A person’s sexual orientation is related to whether the
person is romantically attracted to men, women, or both.
• Gender identity, on the other hand, is about the person’s
own internal identification as male, female, or a gender
in between man and woman.
Myths & Facts about Gender
• Just like non-transgender people, transgender people
can be of any sexual orientation.
Myths & Facts about Gender
• MYTH: All transgender people will eventually take
hormones and get sex reassignment surgery.
Myths & Facts about Gender
• FACT: Some transgender people take hormones and/or
have surgery.
• However, for a number of reasons, many transgender
people do not take either of these steps.
Myths & Facts about Gender
• Some feel comfortable with their bodies the way they
are.
• For others, hormones and surgery are inaccessible
because they may be too expensive and/or require
parental permission.
Handout: Gender Stereotypes
in Schools
• Question:
• Which myths about gender ring “true” here in our
school? That is, which ones are still circulating and
generally accepted?
Stories and Textbooks in Schools
• Sociological and psychological research shows, for
instance, that books for children and young adults
frequently portray girls and boys in stereotypical ways:
Stereotypical Stories
and Textbooks
• Male characters are often portrayed as… Strong,
Capable, Adventurous, Independent, Active Fighters,
Adventurers, Rescuers, Successful because they
demonstrate ingenuity and perseverance.
Stereotypical Stories
and Textbooks
• Female characters are often portrayed as… Sweet,
Naïve, Conforming, Dependent, Caretakers, Mothers,
Princesses in need of rescuing, Characters that support
the male figure, Successful because others help them or
they help others succeed
Stereotypical Stories
and Textbooks
• These stereotypes are harmful because they offer very
limited views of a person’s potential.
• These messages are so pervasive that it would be
unrealistic and ineffective to remove books that
reinforce stereotypes from school bookshelves.
Stereotypical Stories
and Textbooks
• Instead, students need to be taught critical thinking skills
to question the hidden assumptions in what they read.
Cross-Cultural Perceptions of
Gender
• Most babies are labeled as being biologically male or
female at birth, but the process of becoming a man or a
woman is heavily shaped by our culture and society.
Cross-Cultural Perceptions of
Gender
• As such, the definition of what is appropriate for a man
or a woman varies widely among countries, among
religious faiths, and among different eras.
Cross-Cultural Perceptions of
Gender
• In addition to differences between men and women’s
roles, looking back in time and across cultures, one finds
that not all societies rely on only two gender categories.
Cross-Cultural Perceptions of
Gender
• No less than seven gender categories existed amongst
the Chukchi people of Siberia in the 1800s.
• Many First Nation tribes include a third gender category
now called “two-spirit.”
• In Oman, there is a third gender called the xanith.
Cross-Cultural Perceptions of
Gender
• It is apparent from written historical records that there
have been differently gendered people in virtually every
society in every time period.
Cross-Cultural Perceptions of
Gender
• In schools that are increasingly multicultural, it is
important for teachers and students to become global
citizens by understanding cultural influences on gender
identity.
Primary Document Analysis:
Part 1
• You and a partner will analyze an archival etching from
the 16th Century.
In pairs,
interpret
what you see
in the photo.
Be prepared
to discuss you
findings with
the class.
Primary Document Analysis:
Part 1
• What are your findings/interpretations of the etching?
Primary Document Analysis:
One person in the picture is . . .
• Vasco Núñez de Balboa (c. 1475 – around January 12–21,
1519) was a Spanish explorer, governor, and
conquistador. He is best known for having crossed the
Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean in 1513,
becoming the first European to lead an expedition to
have seen or reached the Pacific from the New World.
“Balboa’s Dogs Attacking a Group of
Panamanian Sodomites” etched by
Theodor de Bry in the 16th Century
Primary Document Analysis:
Part 2
• Now imagine you work at the museum where the picture
is housed.
• What would you tell visitors of the museum about the
etching?
Two Spirit: Past, Present & Future
• See the addition handout and read about people who are
Two-Spirit = “Two-Spirit: Past, Present & Future”.
Germany Adopts
Third Gender Law
• Read the additional handout “Germany Adopts Third
Gender Law”.
Questions: Third+ Genders
• Consider your thoughts and reactions to these readings =
“Two-Spirit: Past, Present and Future” & “Germany
Adopts Third Gender Law”.
• Answer the questions on the additional handout.
Gender-Specific + Gender-Neutral
Terminology
• See the additional handout for English and other
language terms that are gender-specific and genderneutral.
Native Youth Sexual Health
Network + Jessica Danforth
• Jessica Danforth is a proud Two Spirit youth, she is the
founder and Executive Director of the Native Youth
Sexual Health Network, the first and only organization of
its kind in by and for Indigenous youth working within
the full spectrum of sexual and reproductive health
throughout the United States and Canada.
Native Youth Sexual Health
Network + Jessica Danforth
• She has spent more than half her life mobilizing
individuals, families, and communities alike to reclaim
their ancestral rights to self-determine decisions over
their own bodies and spaces.
• http://www.nativeyouthsexualhealth.com/
Native Youth Sexual Health
Network + Jessica Danforth
Ideas for Thinking Outside
the Gender Binary!
• 1) Check your baggage. Reflect on your preconceived
attitudes and fears regarding gender norms, gender
conformity and transgender people.
Ideas for Thinking Outside
the Gender Binary!
• 2) Educate yourself. Stay on top of current social,
political and cultural events related to gender issues – are
gender roles being reinforced or deconstructed?
Ideas for Thinking Outside
the Gender Binary!
• 3) Challenge yourself.
Challenge your own stereotypes,
beliefs and expectations around gender. Challenge your
judgments about people who don’t conform to rigid
gender stereotypes either by their clothes, hair,
mannerisms, interests or sexual attractions/ sexual
orientation. Challenge others.
Ideas for Thinking Outside
the Gender Binary!
• 4) Confront sexist/misogynist /homo/trans/bi phobic
attitudes and actions of others. Share what you have
learned and encourage others to take a stand.
Ideas for Thinking Outside
the Gender Binary!
• 5) Make no assumptions. Don’t assume that all boys or all
girls or other people outside of these categories will have the
same interests or learn the same way, or that there is only
one right way to be male or female or trans. Consider the
idea that gender is not a binary but rather exists along a
continuum and is fluid.
Ideas for Thinking Outside
the Gender Binary!
• 6) Practice, practice, practice! Seize opportunities to use
non-gender specific language (i.e. Not “boys and girls”),
and practice challenging the gender stereotypes that
children are taught.
Ideas for Thinking Outside
the Gender Binary!
• 7) Show your support. Continue to attend events,
festivals, and educational opportunities related to
gender and LGBTQIA+ issues.
Ideas for Thinking Outside
the Gender Binary!
• 8) Don’t worry about making mistakes.
We all make
mistakes sometimes! Learn from them and keep on
growing.
Ideas for Thinking Outside
the Gender Binary!
• 9) Be brave.
It takes courage to create change, but we
owe it to ourselves and to other people; we owe it the
world.
A Call for Cisgender Action:
Creating gender-inclusive spaces
and moments in everyday life
What is meant by the term
Cisgender?
A Call for Cisgender Action
• Cisgender means that your gender identity matches your
assigned-at-birth sex.
• Generally, cisgender means that you are not trans,
intersex, asexual or gender-variant.
A Call for Cisgender Action
• The word “cisgender,” names what most people deem to
be “normal“ and calls it into question.
A Call for Cisgender Action
• The word “cisgender” serves as a reminder that:
1. not everyone identifies with their natal sex, such as
trans people.
A Call for Cisgender Action
2. Some people cannot be medically categorized within
the neat (and problematic) “boy” and “girl” boxes,
especially in cases of intersex births.
A Call for Cisgender Action
3. “Man” and “Woman” don’t account for the great variety
of gender identities out there, which span different
cultural traditions and histories. Examples include
genderqueer, two-spirit, and fa’afafine (third-gendered
people of Samoa).
Why Does Gender-Variance
Matter?
• Since mainstream culture is currently fixated on sexuality
and sexual orientation, many gender-variant people in
the LGBTQIA+ community live in silence.
Why Does Gender-Variance
Matter?
• Often, the “T” the “I” and the “A” parts of our acronyms
get sidelined—the trans and intersex communities.
“Trans” is often stuck on as an afterthought, and intersex
and asexual are almost completely unheard of, even in
organizations dedicated to queer awareness and rights.
Why Does Gender-Variance
Matter?
• It is odd that intersex people are overlooked so often.
Medical experts say that only 1 percent of the world’s
population are born with ambiguous sexual
characteristics. Well … that’s actually 70 million
people who don’t fit into the medical binary of “male” or
“female” at birth.
Why Does Gender-Variance
Matter?
• New York Times writer Michael Schwirtz acknowledges
the push and pull of the gender visibility struggle in his
article, “Embarking on a New Life, Transgender Woman
Has It Taken Away.”
Why Does Gender-Variance
Matter?
• As he chronicles the brief and vibrant life of Islan Nettles,
Schwirtz writes, “And though the leaps toward equality
made by gay men and lesbians in recent years seem to
have left transgender people behind, they have become
more visible in politics, entertainment and sports.”
Why Does Gender-Variance
Matter?
• It’s true. Gender-variant people sometimes get to step
into the media limelight, as celebrities … or as hate crime
victims.
• In fact, GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against
Defamation) estimates that 53% of LGBTQIA+ hate
crime victims are transgender women.
Why Does Gender-Variance
Matter?
• How can we prevent this type of violence and phobic
behavior?
• Well, we can start by making everyday environments
more gender-inclusive and encourage respectful
discussions.
How Cisgender People Can Help
• Change in everyday institutions, such as your school,
office, home, church, and non-profit organizations won’t
happen overnight.
• However, you can speed up that process by showing
peers, colleagues, and bosses that gender inclusive
environments are important to everyone.
How Cisgender People Can Help
• This isn’t an exhaustive list, but here are some ways
cisgender people can help.
How Cisgender People Can Help
• 1) Introduce yourself with your name and preferred
pronoun.
• “Hi, my name is Loraine, and I go by ‘she’ and ‘her.’”
How Cisgender People Can Help
• Starting a conversation with your preferred gender is
very different from asking someone their preferred
gender. It’s more inviting, and doesn’t put an individual
on the spot.
How Cisgender People Can Help
• Sure, it’s going to feel weird the first few times. It’ll raise
eyebrows when you share preferred pronouns with new
coworkers at the office or friends at the bar/club. You
might get some strange reactions.
How Cisgender People Can Help
• But it’ll also serve as an invitation for others to share
their pronouns. Just having the option to define your
identity with greater precision can be a great freedom.
How Cisgender People Can Help
• 2) Encourage Sharing During Group Introductions
• If you are facilitating a group discussion, consider asking
everyone to share their preferred name and gender,
along with all those other icebreaker questions.
How Cisgender People Can Help
• This is already happening in some classrooms and
learning environments.
• Even in the workplace you can use preferred pronouns
during introductions at meetings and events.
How Cisgender People Can Help
• 3) Create Unisex Spaces
• 20/20 had a special called “My Secret Self,” (2007;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib_yE5WILJc) were
the show discussed the pressures transgender children
face in social environments, like school, where they are
expected to adopt strict gendered styles and behaviors.
How Cisgender People Can Help
• Some of these tensions can be relieved by not forcing
binary color coding (pink for girls, blue for boys) on
signage or name tags.
• Unisex bathrooms, dressing rooms, and other facilities
can create comfortable settings for non-binary folks and
those faced with the question, “Which bathroom should I
use?”
How Cisgender People Can Help
• When it comes to language, avoid gendered titles and
roles such as Miss / Mister, waiter / waitress, etc. For
instance, use no gender title for people or a genderneutral one and use the term server.
How Cisgender People Can Help
• 4) Avoid Intrusive Questions
• Calpernia Addams has an video online called “Bad
Questions to Ask a Transsexual.” (14 minutes + 20
seconds)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjqsB1huDxg
How Cisgender People Can Help
• While you may find yourself bursting into laughter at
some of the questions, like “Did your surgery hurt?”, you
may be also horrified by the thought that people actually
ask such intrusive questions.
How Cisgender People Can Help
• It’s hard to tell you exactly what to avoid, since some
people may be very open and forthcoming with their
gender identity.
• If you want to ask someone a gender-related question,
be very respectful, and think about whether anyone
would be comfortable answering it.
How Cisgender People Can Help
• 5) Naming Transphobia
• One of the most powerful things a cisgender person can
do is name transphobia when they see it happening.
How Cisgender People Can Help
• Writer Eli Steffen suggests using a direct statement, such
as “That was transphobic,” to help people reassess the
impact of their words and actions.
• When it comes to bullying behaviors, many people fall
into a passive bystander mode.
How Cisgender People Can Help
• Think back to arguments or schoolyard brawls when
words like “sissy” or “trannie” are thrown around.
• Naming transphobia can help snap people out of
complicity and serve as a reminder to be respectful.
Coming Out of Your Closet
• Ash Beckham at TEDxBoulder discusses the current state
of homophobia in our culture challenging even the word
"homophobia" itself. Published on Oct 16, 2013.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSR4xuU07sc&featur
e=youtu.be
• 10 minutes + 56 seconds
Coming Out of Your Closet
• There is no fear, just loathing. Hating things we don't
understand, people we don't know or anything that is
different than our day to day. "Homophobic" people are
not scared of anything.
• We all have a responsibility to live our lives as active
activists not passive ones when it comes to protecting
our fellow humans from hate of any kind.
Short Film:
All You Need Is Love
• Flipping the world on heteronormativity = How Would
You Live If You Couldn't Love?
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ROXTFfkcfo
• 19 minutes + 11 seconds
Short Film:
All You Need Is Love
• “ Teen bulling and teen suicide based on someone's
sexual preference is ridiculous - and this film turns the
tables on modern society. What IF the shoe was on the
other foot?"
~ K.Rocco Shields (Creator/Director)
It Gets Better
• Three-quarters of LGBTQIA+ students and 95% of
transgender students report feeling unsafe at school,
compared to one-fifth of straight students.
• Over half of LGBTQIA+ students report not feeling
accepted at school, and almost half feel like they can’t be
themselves, compared to one-fifth of straight students.
It Gets Better
• Six out of ten LGBTQIA+ students reported being
verbally harassed about their sexual orientation.
• Almost two in five transgender students and one in five
LGBTQIA+ students reported being physically harassed
due to their expression of gender.
It Gets Better
• Dan Savage created the It Gets Better Project in 2010 to
communicate to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
youth around the world that it gets better, and to create
and inspire the changes needed to make it better for
them.
• www.youtube.com/itgetsbetterproject#p/f/0/7IcVyvg2Ql
o
• 1 minute
It Gets Better
• Gwen Haworth’s version:
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zrjz9g83gz0
• 2:08 minutes
It Gets Better
• Is this an important message for youth to hear? Why or
why not?
• Is using YouTube a good way to get this message to
youth? Why or why not?
• Do you think this campaign will be/is effective in helping
to decrease LGBTQIA+ youth suicides? Why or why not?
It Gets Better
• Work in small groups to create your own antihomophobia/biphobia/transphobia messages.
• You can focus on any of the following:
It Gets Better
• Everyone has the right to be themselves at school
without fear of harassment.
• Homophobia, biphobia and transphobia is hurtful and
people should speak up against it if they hear or see it.
It Gets Better
• Being an LGBTQIA+ youth is a positive thing that
everyone should be proud of.
• Diversity should be celebrated and people should not be
discriminated against for being different.
Knowing and accepting yourself as
gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender,
two-spirit or just plain queer can be
a freeing experience.
It is also something that you should
feel PROUD about!
“I wouldn’t change even if I could
because there isn’t anything wrong
with me.”
Every day is a good day to talk
about gender, but these days are
especially noteworthy:
• No Name Calling Week……….…………….…January
• Day of Pink......................... February (date varies)
• International Women’s Day.......................March 8
• Day of Silence............................April (date varies)
• International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia
and Transphobia…………………………….......May 17
• National Coming Out Day (USA)......... October 11
• Trans Day of Remembrance........... November 20
• Human Rights Day.......................... December 10
The Human Rights Campaign
http://www.hrc.org/
Shout Out Against Homophobia,
Biphobia, Transphobia and
Heterosexism
• A booklet designed to educate about sexual orientation
and gender identity.
The End . . . and the Beginning.
Questions for Straight People
• Watch These Straight People Answer A Question Gay
People Have Been Asked For Years
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1aPlEGqVIk
• 2:59 minutes
Documentary Film:
She’s A Boy I Knew
• She's A Boy I Knew is an exploration into the process of
transitioning from biological male to female.
• The film is an emotionally charged account of the
experiences, struggles, and stakes that the individual
along with family and friends experience in the process.