Project:Policies specific to gender identities

This page is contains lgbtDB rules, policies, and guidelines regarding gender identities, gender identity use, and other gender-identity-related entities on the site. It was adapted from the first incarnation of the site, which was hosted at Yale University in the early 2020s. Note that not all links have been updated. Thank you for your patience as we work through integrating it into this incarnation of the site.

Introduction

Identities

See also: Project:Policies specific to identities

Broadly, an identity is a set of qualities that characterize a person (personal identity) or characterize a person's belonging to a particular group (social identities).

Social Identities

A social identity is a portion of an individual's self-concept that is based primarily on self-categorization within a particular group or combination of groups. These categorizations are often (but not always) assigned to individuals by factors outside of their direct control. The eight major social identities are sometimes referred to as the "Big 8", being:

1. ability
2. age
3. ethnicity
4. gender
5. race
6. religion
7. sexual orientation
8. socioeconomic status

These concepts may be split into separate qualifications based on the definition of a particular term versus the individual's self-identification as such. For example, a work may describe a person's race as African American, even if the term "African American" was not in wide use prior to the 1980s in the United States. In such scenarios, individuals may differentiate between "race" and "racial identity" (or "religion" and "religious identity", "sexual orientation" and "sexual (orientation) identity", "gender" and "gender identity", etc., etc.). In the context of lgbtDB, we occasionally make this separation insofar as it may be useful in select situations, but we avoid it as much as possible, preferring an individual's self-identification.

Gender Identities

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines gender identity as "a person's deeply felt, internal and individual experience of gender". The Yogyakarta Principles (YP) affirm this definition describing gender identity as "each person’s presentation of the person's gender through physical appearance, including dress, hairstyles, accessories, cosmetics, and mannerisms, speech, behavioral patterns, names, and personal references".

Creating a Gender Identity

Conditions for Creation

It is preferable that a gender identity be in use by at least one real-life or fictional person who meets the Wikipedia notability criteria. However, because lgbtDB often covers data marginalized as a result of the notability criteria, it is acceptable to create a new gender identity element as long as the entity is claimed specifically as a gender identity in any of the following scenarios:

1. There is evidence of a person using such a gender identity in at least one publication, even if that person is anonymous;
2. There is evidence of a person using such a gender identity in at least one publicly available survey, such as in the Gender Census data;
3. There is a page regarding the identity as part of at least one LGBTQIA+-related resource, such as a wiki that explicitly names the entity as a gender identity

Some wikis wherein marginalized or uncommon gender identities can be found include (but are not limited to):

• Gender Wiki

Labels and Aliases

Use the name of the gender identity directly as the main label (for example use "nonbinary" and not "nonbinary gender" or "nonbinary gender identity"). Then add aliases that indicate that this is a gender identity specifically, such as "nonbinary (gender identity)" and "nonbinary gender identity".

Descriptions

Many gender identities are utilized in significantly different ways, such as intergender having at least two distinct definitions and use cases. Each definition should be included as its own entry on lgbtDB.

Classification

All gender identities such have an "instance of" (P1) "gender identity" (Q10639) statement. Next, ascertain whether the gender identity is uncommon, using the criteria for uncommon gender identities from the Nonbinary Wiki. These are as follows (adapted directly from the Nonbinary Wiki on 18 September 2025):

1. At least 1% of participants in a survey with at least 1,000 answers focused on nonbinary people in general (and not just a subset of identities) chose this identity to describe themselves.
2. At least 0.2% of participants in a survey focused on nonbinary people in general (and not just a subset of identities) chose this identity to describe themselves. Additionally, the identity has appeared in a non-primary source.
3. A full article on Wikipedia is enough for an identity to be considered notable, since Wikipedia already has high notability standards. A section of a larger article is not enough for this point. Wikis other than Wikipedia are not valid sources for this point.

If the identity fits the criteria for an uncommon gender identity, add it as an "instance of" (P1) "uncommon nonbinary gender identity" (Q24972) statement.

Assigning a Gender Identity

Use Cases

Pronoun Usage as Evidence of Gender Identity

Usage of particular gendered pronouns is not enough information to assign gender identity. For instance, usage of she/her pronouns does not necessarily imply that an individual has a female gender identity. However, an individual identifying as female, as a woman, or as a girl, is enough to label an individual as having a female gender identity. For example, Kim Petras (Q14818) tweeted on 10 June 2020:

i am a woman and i want to be seen and treated as one but i am also proud of being transgender and don’t feel insulted when people call me a trans woman . it’s not easy . it’s weird and some people will never get it . but that doesn’t make me any less or any more . that’s all .

This quote is enough to add a female gender identity for Kim Petras. Alternatively, Dua Saleh (Q17125) tweeting the following on 11 October 2020 is not enough to label them as nonbinary or male:

hey I know I’m already out and I love the pronouns that I use they/them/theirs & he/him/his but I’ve also been referring to myself with the neopronouns xe/xyr/xim

Alternatively, the following tweet from them (21 June 2020) is significant enough to add a nonbinary gender identity for Dua Saleh:

Just to clarify I am not a woman.

Non-binary people have many varying relationships to identity, some even do identify as women.

But that’s not me 🥴

Genderswap Bodyswap in a "Freaky Friday" Scenario

Bodyswapping is one of many tropes common across various media. The trope of a "Freaky Friday" itself gets its name from the 1976 film Freaky Friday, itself based on a children's novel of the same name. However the trope is considerably older, with the children's novel being a re-telling of the 1882 novel Vice Versa: A Lesson to Fathers.

In a number of instances of the "Freaky Friday" trope, a male character and a female character swap bodies. While this change is often handled in a misogynistic manner, the question may come up whether a character who swaps bodies is cisgender, transgender, or something else, or if that individual's gender identity fundamentally changes.

In most cases, the answer is that the gender identity and gender modality are fundamentally unaltered by the experience, in a way akin to physical transformation through shapeshifting or some other fictional methodology. However, some fiction makes clear (or at least suggests) that the individual's brain itself is fundamentally changed, essentially making the individual a completely different person. In these cases, gender identity may be different. However, these individuals are still not considered transgender for the purposes of lgbtDB.

Involuntary Surgical Alteration of Physical Characteristics

While extremely rare in real life, there are unfortunately a number of fictional representations of involuntary surgical alteration of sexual characteristics. These changes, being involuntary, do not fundamentally change a character's gender identity or gender modality.

One significant real-life example is the case of David Reimer. Reimer was assigned male at birth (AMAB) on 22 August 1965. At six months of age, Reimer (and his twin brother) were diagnosed with phimosis. Both brothers were referred for circumcision one month later. The doctor utilized an unconventional surgical methodological, electrocauterization. The procedure resulted in an unanticipated accident, in which David's penis was burned beyond what was considered to be repairable. Concerned about their son's life, David's parents brought him to see psychologist John Money in 1967. Money was a proponent of complete social construction of gender identity, in relationship to his "theory of gender neutrality". He saw David as a research subject to test this theory and therefore persuaded David's parents to have David undergo orchiectomy and vulvoplasty. Eventually, at age 14, David proclaimed that he had a male gender identity, and began testosterone injections, had a double mastectomy, and underwent phalloplasty. In 2004, David took his own life at 38 years of age. Reimer's parents maintained that John Money's methodology was responsible for his death. In this case, we can clearly see that involuntary surgical alteration, does not alter one's gender identity.

Multiple Consciousnesses, Personalities, or Identities in One Physical Body

A bit of a rarer trope in fiction includes multiple consciousnesses existing simultaneously in a single body. In these cases, it is important to note that personhood is singular and therefore, each consciousness would be provided its own entry and information because each would usually qualify as a separate person. For instance, if (in a fictional work) the consciousness had its own body previously and latches onto another body and can exert some kind of control over it.

Plural People, Dissociative Identity Disorder, and "Multiple Personality Disorder" in Fiction

Fictional depictions of "multiple personality disorder", known as dissociative identity disorder (DID) in real life, often exaggerate the individual personalities to the point of being separate people. However, these personalities usually never had previous bodies to begin with and exist as part of a single consciousness. In these cases, all gender identities are listed but are provided a qualifier with the name of the individual personality.

In real-life, some people self-identify as plural. Many of those that identify as plural (although not all) have been diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder. Psychologists and psychiatrists may refer to the individual identities that a person with DID has as "alters" (although this term is considered derogatory by some plural persons, and the term "headmate" may be used instead). Whether or not a headmate is considered a separate person legally, is up for debate. For example, if a headmate were considered a different person, then culpability would likely be diminished if the headmate was implicated in a crime. However, in practice, there is no set precedent in DID cases. In State v Milligan an insanity defense related to DID was accepted, but State v Darnall, State v Grimsley, State v Jones, State v Greene, State v Lockhart, and Orndorff v Commonwealth all rejected the insanity defense in DID cases. Because of this, plural persons having individual headmates are not split into separate entries, and all associated gender identities are listed with a qualifier indicating the specific headmate(s) associated with that gender identity.

Conjoined Bodies

In cases of conjoined persons, either conjoined naturally or artificially, each individual person retains their individuality and therefore their gender identity. For conjoined twins, for instance, each of the twins has their own consciousness and is therefore legally their own person. In fiction, persons may be artificially combined in any number of ways. However, if each consciousness remains somewhat distinct, then the individual retains their identity and, as part of their identity, their gender identity.

Specific Examples

Real-Life Persons

• David Reimer

Fictional Persons

• Poison (Q4871)

Additional Resources

• Gender Wiki
• Plurality Resource
• Metadata Best Practices for Trans and Gender Diverse Resources
• The Trans Journalists Association's Stylebook and Coverage Guide