INFORMATIONAL GUIDE
Key Terms and Concepts in Understanding
Gender Diversity and Sexual Orientation
Among Students
About this Series
This resource is part of a series of informational guides from Division 16 (School Psychology) and Division 44 (Society for
the Psychological Study of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues) of the American Psychological Association.
This series, “Promoting Resiliency for Gender Diverse and Sexual Minority Students in Schools,” sets out best practices
for educators, school counselors, administrators and personnel, based on the latest research on the needs of lesbian,
gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, gender diverse, questioning and intersex students. The series includes topics such
as gender diversity among students, helping to support families with LGBT children and youth, risk factors and resiliency
factors within schools around health and wellbeing of LGBT youth, and basic facts about gender diversity and sexual
orientation among children and youth.
SERIES INCLUDES:
Pamphlet 01
How Educators Can Support Families With Gender
Diverse And Sexual Minority Children and Youth
Pamphlet 02
Supporting Transgender and Gender Diverse
Students in Schools: Key Recommendations for
School Health Personnel
Pamphlet 03
Supporting Transgender and Gender Diverse
Students in Schools: Key Recommendations for
School Administrators
Pamphlet 04
School-Based Risk and Protective Factors for
Gender Diverse and Sexual Minority Children and
Youth: Improving School Climate
Pamphlet 05
Key Terms and Concepts in Understanding Gender
Diversity and Sexual Orientation among Students
A national survey (Kosciw, Greytak, Bartkiewicz, Boesen, & Palmer, 2012) nds that gender diverse and sexual
minority youth:
Sobering Statistics
Hear peers make negative
remarks about sexual
orientation (71%) and
gender expression (61%)
71%
Are verbally harassed
because of sexual
orientation (82%) or
gender expression (64%)
82%
Hear teachers make negative
remarks about sexual
orientation (57%) and
gender expression (57%)
57%
Are physically harassed
because of sexual
orientation (38%) or
gender expression (27%)
38%
64% of students feel unsafe at school because of sexual orientation prejudice, and 44% feel unsafe at school because
of gender expression. When gender diverse and sexual minority youth experienced harassment or assault, over 60%
did not report the incident to school staff, often because they believed that little action would be taken or that the
situation would be made worse by reporting (Kosciw, Greytak, Bartkiewicz, Boesen, & Palmer, 2012).
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Definitions and Limitations of Language
The language around gender and sexuality continues to
evolve rapidly, even as this resolution was being written.
Words and their denitions change or become rened
as our understanding of complex constructs related to
sexuality and gender evolves. We recognize that learning
which words or phrases are most accurate, respectful and
useful is an important goal in adopting this resolution.
Given how rapidly terminology changes, we recognize
that even this list of terms and denitions might undergo
signicant change in the future. Therefore, it is important
to explicitly and consciously articulate our current
understanding of the following terms that appear in this
resolution and in its supporting documents:
Key Recommendations
Asexual refers to a person who does not experience sexual attraction or has
little interest in sexual activity.
Bullying is unwanted, repetitive, and aggressive behavior marked by an
imbalance of power. It can take on multiple forms, including physical (e.g.,
hitting), verbal (e.g., name calling or making threats), relational (e.g., spreading
rumors), and electronic (e.g., texting, social networking). (Rossen & Cowan,
2012).
Cisgender replaces the terms “nontransgender” or “bio man/bio woman” to
refer to individuals who have a match between the sex they were assigned at
birth, their bodies, and their gender identity. (Schilt & Westbrook, 2009).
DSD refers to “disorders of sex development”, a term that is used to discuss
intersex and variations in sex development by some medical professionals and
community members. See entry for Intersex.
Gender refers to the attitudes, feelings, and behaviors that a given culture associates with a person’s biological sex.
Behavior that is compatible with cultural expectations is referred to as gender-normative; behaviors that are viewed as
incompatible with these expectations constitute gender non-conformity. (APA guidelines)
Gender Expression An individual’s presentation, including physical appearance, clothing choice and accessories,
and behavior that communicates aspects of gender or gender role. Gender expression may or may not conform to a
person’s gender identity.
Gender Identity A person’s deeply-felt, inherent sense of being a boy, a man, or male; a girl, a woman, or female; or
an alternative gender (e.g., genderqueer, gender non-conforming, boygirl, ladyboi) which may or may not correspond
to a person’s sex assigned at birth or to a person’s primary or secondary sex characteristics. Since gender identity is
internal, a person’s gender identity is not necessarily visible to others. ‘Afrmed gender identity’ refers to a person’s
gender identify after coming out as transgender or gender non-conforming or undergoing a social and/or medical
transition process.
Gender Diversity refers to the extent to which a person’s gender identity, role, or expression differs from the cultural
norms prescribed for people of a particular sex. This term is becoming more popular as a way to describe people
without reference to a particular cultural norm, in a manner that is more afrming and potentially less stigmatizing than
gender nonconformity. (Gender Spectrum, 2013; https://www.genderspectrum.org/understanding-gender).
Gender Dysphoria refers to discomfort or distress that is associated with a discrepancy between a person’s gender
identity and that person’s sex assigned at birth (and the associated gender role and/or primary and secondary sex
characteristics) (Fisk, 1974; Knudson, De Cuypere, & Bockting, 2010b). Only some gender-nonconforming people
experience gender dysphoria at some point in their lives. (Coleman, et al. 2011)
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Gender Identity refers to one’s sense of oneself as male, female, or
something else (American Psychological Association, 2006). When one’s
gender identity and biological sex are not congruent, the individual may
identify along the transgender spectrum (cf. Gainor, 2000; APA guidelines).
Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation are Different Constructs
Transgender people, like cisgender people, may be sexually oriented toward
men, women, both sexes, or neither sex, and like most people, usually
experience their gender identity (who they feel themselves to be) and their
sexual orientation (whom they are attracted to) as separate phenomena
(Bockting & Gray, 2004; Chivers & Bailey, 2000; Coleman, Bockting, &
Gooren, 1993; Docter & Fleming, 2001; Docter & Prince, 1997). Many
transgender people experience a shift in their sexual attractions at some point
(Daskalos, 1998; Meier, Pardo, Labuski, & Babcock, 2013), indicating that
sexual orientation may be more dynamic than previously thought.
Gender Non-Conforming is an adjective and umbrella term to describe
individuals whose gender expression, gender identity, or gender role differs
from gender norms associated with their assigned birth sex. Subpopulations
of the TGNC community can develop specialized language to represent their
experience and culture, such as the term “masculine of center” that is used in
communities of color to describe a GNC identity.
Gender Role fefers to a pattern of appearance, personality, and behavior that, in a given culture, is associated with
being a boy/man/male or being a girl/woman/female.. A person’s gender role may or may not conform to what is
expected based on a person’s sex assigned at birth. Gender role may also refer to the social role one is living in (e.g.,
as a woman, a man, or another gender), with some role characteristics conforming and others not conforming to what is
associated with girls/women or boys/men in a given culture and time.
Genderqueer refers to a person whose gender identity falls outside of the gender binary (i.e. identies with neither
or both genders). Genderqueers may also use the term “gender uid” as an identier but typically reject the term
“transgender” because it implies a change from one gender category to another.
Intersex refers to a range of conditions associated with atypical development of physical sex characteristics (American
Psychological Association [APA], 2006). Intersex individuals may be born with chromosomes, genitals, and/or gonads
that do not t typical female or male presentations (OII-USA, 2013). Some examples of these conditions include
ambiguous external genitals, inability of the body to respond typically to sex-related hormones, and inconsistency
between external genitals and internal reproductive organs (APA, 2006). Since 2006, the medical and research
community has used the term Disorders of Sex Development. This term refers to congenital conditions characterized by
atypical development of chromosomal, gonadal, or anatomical sex (Houk, Hughes, Ahmed, Lee, & Writing Committee
for the International Intersex Consensus Conference Participants, 2006). An alternate term – Differences of Sex
Development – has been recommended to prevent a view of these conditions as diseased or pathological (Wisemann,
Udo-Koeller, Sinnecker, & Thyen, 2010). In order to be inclusive of various terminology preferences, this document will
use intersex/DSD when referring to individuals who are part of this community.
Pansexual “is most commonly used in the world outside academia as a sexual identity [and sexual orientation] term
similar to ‘bisexuality,’ but more inclusive of trans people. It also shows an awareness of the implied gender binary in
the term ‘bisexual.’” (Elizabeth, 2013, p. 333)
Pushout: a student who leaves school before graduation due to the encouragement of school personnel, often to
enable the school to achieve a performance goal or to lower disruption within the school or because the school views
the student as too much trouble. This term is in contrast to “drop out” to highlight the institutional inuence on individual
behavior. (retrieved from http://www.ndyouthinfo.gov/youth-topics/lgbtq-youth)
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Queer is an umbrella term that individuals may use to describe a sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender
expression that does not conform to dominant societal norms. Historically, it has been considered a derogatory or
pejorative term and the term may continue to be used by some individuals with negative intentions. Still, many LGBT
individuals today embrace the label in a neutral or positive manner (Russell, Kosciw, Horn, & Saewyc, 2010). Some youth
may adopt ‘queer’ as an identity term to avoid limiting themselves to the gender binaries of male and female or to the
perceived restrictions imposed by lesbian, gay, and bisexual sexual orientations (Rivers, 2010).
Questioning is an identity label for a person who is exploring their sexual orientation or gender identity, and is in a state
of moratorium in terms of identity formation.
Sex refers to a person’s biological status and is typically categorized as male, female, or intersex (i.e., atypical
combinations of features that usually distinguish male from female). There are a number of indicators of biological sex,
including sex chromosomes, gonads, internal reproductive organs, and external genitalia. (APA guidelines).
Sex assignment is the initial categorization of an infant as male or female.
Sexual orientation refers to the sex of those to whom one is sexually and romantically attracted. Categories of
sexual orientation typically have included attraction to members of one’s own sex (gay men or lesbians), attraction to
members of the other sex (heterosexuals), and attraction to members of both sexes (bisexuals). Some people identify
as pansexual or queer in terms of their sexual orientation, which means they dene their sexual orientation outside of the
gender binary of “male” and “female” only. While these categories continue to be widely used, research has suggested
that sexual orientation does not always appear in such denable categories and instead occurs on a continuum (e.g.,
Kinsey, Pomeroy, Martin, & Gebhard, 1953; Klein, 1993; Klein, Sepekoff, & Wolff, 1985; Shiveley & DeCecco, 1977). In
addition, some research indicates that sexual orientation is uid for some people; this may be especially true for women
(e.g., Diamond, 2007; Golden, 1987; Peplau & Garnets, 2000).
Sexual Orientation A component of identity that includes a person’s sexual and emotional attraction to another person
and the behavior that may result from this attraction. An individual’s sexual orientation may be lesbian, gay, heterosexual,
bisexual, queer, pansexual, or asexual. A person may be attracted to men, women, both, neither, genderqueer,
androgynous or have other gender identities. Sexual orientation is distinct from sex, gender identity, gender role and
gender expression.
Transgender is an umbrella term that incorporates differences in gender identity wherein one’s assigned biological
sex doesn’t match their felt identity. This umbrella term includes persons who do not feel they t into a dichotomous
sex structure through which they are identied as male or female. Individuals in this category may feel as if they are in
the wrong gender, but this perception may not correlate with a desire for surgical or hormonal reassignment (Meier &
Labuski, 2013).
A publication of the American
Psychological Association,
Divisions 16 and 44 © 2015
