Promoting and Protecting Human Rights in relation to Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Sex Characteristics A Manual for National Human Rights Institutions Gender identity is a person’s internal sense of being a man or a woman or a third or other alternative gender, or a combination of genders. Transgender and trans are umbrella terms to describe people whose gender identity does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. This manual uses the umbrella term ‘transgender’ to encompass a wide range of gender diversity, including people who identify as transsexual, transgender, third gender, gender non-conforming, Female to Male (FtM) or trans men, Male to Female (MtF) or trans women, or using one of the many culturally specific terms across the Asia Pacific region that describe gender diversity. In addition, there are many transgender women in the region who simply identify as women and transgender men who identify as men. Both Asia and the Pacific have long traditions of ‘non-binary’ or ‘third gender’ identities. Nonbinary English language terms such as ‘gender non-conforming’ or ‘genderqueer’ are less common in the region, except for Australia and New Zealand. These terms are used by people whose identity is not limited to being either a man or a woman and/or whose gender expression is not limited to either masculine or feminine. Cisgender is an opposite term to transgender. It describes people who are not transgender, because their assigned sex at birth matches their gender identity. Transitioning is the process that a transgender person undergoes to live in their self-defined gender identity. It may involve social, legal and/or medical steps. • Social transition steps may include changes to clothing, hairstyle, mannerisms and/or the name or pronoun someone uses in everyday interactions. • Legal transition steps involve formally changing the person’s name, title, sex or gender on official identification documents. • Medical transition steps that affirm a transgender person’s gender identity include, for example, hormone treatment and a range of surgeries. The great majority of transgender people in this region are unable to gain legal recognition or access to most gender affirming health services.31 Dislike of or prejudice against someone because they are, or are assumed to be, transgender is called ‘transphobia’. It is often an underlying cause of discrimination and violence against transgender people. Gender expression is a person’s ways of communicating masculinity or femininity (or both or neither) externally. This is done through physical appearance – including clothing, hair styles and the use of cosmetics – and mannerisms, ways of speaking and behavioural patterns when interacting with others. 31 12 See Chapter 3.