Good evening, I’m [INTRODUCE YOURSELF]. I’m glad to have the opportunity to share a little bit about the basics of genders. We sometimes dive past basic definitions, which may cause confusion and misinformation, especially around LGBTQ+ issues. It’s important to be on the same page when we talk about policy that affects our students’ rights and protections.
So let’s talk genders. As you may know, all human genders have three aspects: biological gender, gender identity, and gender expression.
Sex assigned at birth, sometimes referred to as “biological sex” or “biological gender” is based on body parts, hormones, and chromosomes. This is the sex you are assigned by the medical community when you are born.
Gender identity is about who you are inside, who you know yourself to be. Some call this your psychological self, your spirit, or your soul.
The third aspect is gender expression– how you express your gender in everything from your clothes, hair, makeup, or not, jewelry, or not…to the name you use, your pronouns, even the way you move your body.
Sometimes these match up, and the term for that is ‘cisgender.’ Sometimes they are different, and those students may be transgender, gender non-binary, gender fluid, or genderqueer. We know that students’ bodies, minds, and hearts grow and develop in hundreds of different ways as they move from childhood, through puberty, and towards adulthood. Students’ sense of their own identity, which includes their gender, grows dramatically as well as they learn to be their true selves.
Students need space and support to figure out who they are and how they want to be in the world. Our job as adults is to provide all of our students with a safe and supportive space to do just that.
Why am I talking about this now? Some people in power fuel divisions and exploit a lack of familiarity with different aspects of gender so they can deny our students the resources and support they need. We see needless cruelty, such as XXX [insert local or state policies here, such as bans on gender affirming health care, policing bathrooms and locker rooms, banning books with transgender characters, and referring to transgender girls as ‘biological males’].
Here’s the thing. Biology is your own business. Schools are meant to be a place where all children, regardless of gender, gender identity, or gender expression, grow and learn. Period. It’s not about policing who you can be. I believe we are here to support all young people to be their authentic selves and pursue their dreams.
Thank you.
