At Los Angeles Gender Center, we envision gender and sexuality as existing along a series of scales, with many progressive shades of colors. Gender identity, which is the deeply felt sense of oneself as female, male, both, neither, or other, is integral to how we see ourselves in the world; whereas gender expression is the way we convey who we are. Sexual orientation is the nature of one’s physical and emotional attraction to another and is often confused with gender identity or gender expression, but these are distinct constructs. At LAGC, we celebrate the soulfulness and depth that diversity brings.
♦ Biologic Sex (anatomy, chromosomes, hormones)
| Male | Intersex | Female |
♦ Gender Identity (psychological sense of self)
| Man, FTM, Transman | Third Sex, Trans, Bi-gender,Gender-queer, Other | Woman, MTF, Transwoman |
♦ Gender Expression (communication of gender)
| Masculine | Androgynous | Feminine |
♦ Sexual Orientation (identity of erotic response)
| Attracted to Women | Attracted to both/neitherto trans, genderqueer, other | Attracted to Men |
♦ Sexual Behavior (sexual behavior)
| Sex with Women | Sex with both, trans,gender-queer, other | Sex with Men |
Adapted from “Diagram of Sex and Gender” http://gendersanity.com/diagram.html
For individuals, these different scales are sometimes fixed and sometimes fluid. Movement along them is not always continuous or in one direction. Most of humanity lies somewhere between the black and white extremes, somewhere between the stereotypes of action hero and beauty queen. At the Los Angeles Gender Center, we appreciate that each person’s journey is unique and this idea is integral to our work.
