Gender modality

{{Short description|Relationship between assigned gender and current gender identity}}

Gender modality is the relationship between one's gender and the sex that they were assigned at birth.{{Cite web |title=Transgender and Nonbinary Identities |url=https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/gender-identity/transgender |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20241201234713/https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/gender-identity/transgender |archive-date=2024-12-01 |access-date=2024-12-19 |website=www.plannedparenthood.org |language=en}} For example, someone who is assigned female at birth (AFAB) and identifies as a woman has a cisgender gender modality. The term was first coined by Florence Ashley{{Cite journal |last=Ashley |first=Florence |last2=Brightly-Brown |first2=Shari |last3=Rider |first3=G. Nic |date=2024-06-10 |title=Beyond the trans/cis binary: introducing new terms will enrich gender research |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-01719-9 |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=630 |issue=8016 |pages=293–295 |doi=10.1038/d41586-024-01719-9|doi-access=free }} in 2022 to describe the "broad category which includes being trans[gender] and being cis[gender]."{{Cite journal |last=Ashley |first=Florence |date=2022 |title='Trans' is my gender modality |url=https://perma.cc/2TF6-VP2U |journal=Trans Bodies, Trans Selves |edition=2nd |publisher=Oxford University Press}} The term was intended to be analogous to sexual orientation and to allow "space to reflect on" the relationship between gender identity and gender assigned at birth for non-binary people, people of diverse cultural backgrounds, and people with disassociative identity disorder.

The term has been applied in trans health{{cite journal |last1=Streed |first1=Carl G |last2=Beach |first2=Lauren B |display-authors=1 |date=8 July 2021 |title=Assessing and Addressing Cardiovascular Health in People Who Are Transgender and Gender Diverse: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association |journal=Circulation |volume=144 |issue=6 |pages=e136–e148 |doi=10.1161/CIR.0000000000001003 |pmc=8638087 |pmid=34235936}} and education literature, and by governments{{cite web |date=18 October 2021 |title=Classification of cisgender, transgender and non-binary |url=https://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/pUtil.pl?Function=getNote&Id=1326715&NT=01 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240612002606/https://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/pUtil.pl?Function=getNote&Id=1326715&NT=01 |archive-date=12 June 2024 |access-date=19 June 2024 |website=Standards, Data Sources, and Classifications: Statistical Classifications |publisher=Statistics Canada}} and courts.{{Cite court|litigants=Michel v. Graydon|vol=2|reporter=SCR|opinion=763|pinpoint=101|court=SCC|year=2020|url=https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/2020/2020scc24/2020scc24.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220412151904/https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/2020/2020scc24/2020scc24.html|url-status=live|9=}}