Cisgender

What does cisgender mean?

What's the difference between cisgender and straight?

Is cisgender the opposite of transgender?

What does cisgender mean?

When we're born, we're assigned as a boy or a girl depending on what genitals we possess. Sometime later in life, we question this, and where some people find their way to different places on the gender spectrum, others are happy to stick with the label given at birth - this makes that person cisgender. It simplifies the conversation on gender and removes the rigidity of the gender binary that has existed for so long. Gender is an essential part of what makes you YOU, so it's great to have the language to express it to others.

What does it mean to be cisgender?

To be cisgender means that you identify with the sex assigned at birth. For example, if you were assigned as female at birth and still identify as that gender, then you are cisgender.

What's the difference between cisgender and straight?

Cisgender applies to what gender you identify, whereas 'straight' is a definition of your sexual orientation. You can be cisgender and straight (heterosexual), or you can be cisgender and identify as LGBTQIA.

What is a cis woman or a cis man?

A cis woman or cis man is a person who identifies as the gender given at birth. It's just another way of saying cisgender but further identifies which sex you identify with too.

Is cisgender the opposite of transgender?

Gender isn't binary like that. It is more realistic to say that cisgender and transgender are at different ends of a scale. A person who identifies as another gender to the one assigned at birth might identify as transgender. However, they may identify as non-binary or gender fluid and not see themselves as transgender or cisgender. There is a whole spectrum of genders.

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Questions answered on bisexuality

There's a common misconception that the word 'bisexual' means 'someone who is attracted to the two binary genders', but this isn't really the case; generally, the word means (and is used to mean) 'attracted to people of my gender and people not of my gender'. As such, it can have broadly the same meaning as 'pansexual' - and the two terms are increasingly often used interchangeably by people to whom both can apply. Whichever you prefer, it's absolutely vital to remember that bisexuals aren't on the fence, waiting to choose or 50/50 - they're simply capable of being attracted to people of all and any genders.

Want all the flirty kinky queer fun?

"There's nowt as queer as folk" is an often-used phrase in the north of England and means there's nothing as strange as people. This term stems from the 16th-century usage of the word meaning 'odd, peculiar or eccentric.' Some people think of the word 'queer' as an insult given its use in the later 19th and early 20th century. From the 1980s however, the term was reclaimed by those who want to undermine that insult and use the name to show their rebellious, non-gendered approach to homosexuality. The queer community is vibrant and growing day by day.

What does non-binary mean?

For a long time, gender has been seen as a binary. Society is very fixed on the idea that there are two sexes, male and female, and nothing else is widely considered. However, this belief is changing as it becomes more and more evident that gender is indeed a spectrum, not just a binary. A growing number of people are identifying as genders that sit between the binary of male and female with a variety of labels available for people to identify with. Non-binary is an umbrella term for these folks. They may also identify as transgender but not necessarily so.