The Duty to Accommodate – Gender Identity and Gender Expression

Durham Colleges recognizes that people who are transitioning may need distinct forms and degrees of accommodation along the way. They may ask for recognition of their preferred gender and name while waiting for formal changes to official identity documents. Please complete the “Change of Name/Gender Identity Update Form” to request your lived name and gender be changed in the College’s student information system.

Respect, understanding and confidentiality is everyone’s responsibility during transition and the accommodation process.

Terms:

Gender identity is each person’s internal and individual experience of gender. It is their sense of being a woman, a man, both, neither, or anywhere along the gender spectrum. A person’s gender identity may be the same as or different from their birth-assigned sex. Gender identity is fundamentally different from a person’s sexual orientation.

Gender expression is how a person publicly presents their gender. This can include behaviour and outward appearance such as dress, hair, make-up, body language and voice. A person’s chosen name and pronoun are also common ways of expressing gender.

Trans or transgender is an umbrella term referring to people with diverse gender identities and expressions that differ from stereotypical gender norms. It includes but is not limited to people who identify as transgender, trans woman (male-to-female), trans man (female-to-male), transsexual, cross-dresser, gender non-conforming, gender variant or gender queer.

“Lived” gender identity is the gender a person feels internally (“gender identity” along the gender spectrum) and expresses publicly (“gender expression”) in their daily life including at work, while shopping or accessing other services, in their housing environment or in the broader community.”

http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/policy-preventing-discrimination-because-gender-identity-and-gender-expression