Can you have a different gender and gender identity?

Answer 1

That is the reason for the two distinct terms. Gender identity is not always the same as the person's physical sex. In some cases, the biological basis may also be unclear.

This gives rise to the terms "a man trapped in a woman's body" or vice versa. There is considerable debate as to the primary cause, whether it is more commonly a genetic basis or learned behavior. But in either case, some individuals obtain body-changing surgery (sex-reassignment surgery) to address the psychological and lifestyle problems this can create. Transsexuals see their condition as a birth defect. A male to female transsexual usually contends that she was a woman born with a birth defect and that she needs corrective surgery to give her as close to what she was supposed to have all along as possible.

One school of thought in relation to the above debate is that gender identity is inborn while gender expression is learned. A common model used by transsexual persons is that sex (the body), gender (sense of who you are), and orientation are three separate things. That has several shortcomings, as it does not explain non-op transgenderism, it does not reconcile transsexualism with feminism, and it opens the door to call not only transgenderism, but transsexualism a choice as well. That is why some now split "gender" in that model into two parts - gender identity (your inborn sense of being), and gender role (chosen and social aspects of gender). Another group, Harry Benjamin Syndrome International divides "sex" into two parts (body sex and brain sex), leaving "gender" to mean the social part of things.

With either modified gender model, transsexual persons can say that their gender identity is inborn without contradicting feminists who say gender (expression) is a social construct. Also, it explains non-op and recreational transgenderism, since it is not their gender identity that is at odds with their body or society, but their gender role.

It is ironic that the same people who say gayness is inborn want to question gender identity as an inborn and immutable trait. When a transsexual needs to get surgery, it isn't about their behaviors, but about their life-long feelings and drives and making the body match who they have always been. Just like a gay man could in theory be gay without ever having sex, a transsexual person could likewise suffer in silence their entire lives, live a lie, and ignore the body-identity discrepancy until they succumb to stress.