Gender expression
Personal accounts
“As someone who is cisgender, I know that I may never truly understand what it is like to question my gender (unless a day comes when I do). I have family members and friends who identify as different genders to those they were assigned at birth and it goes without saying that I will always support them. For me, I believe it’s not really any of my business what someone’s gender is, as it doesn’t directly affect me - meaning, I would probably never actively ask someone, but would call them whatever they liked if they told me. I suppose it’s not great that I wouldn’t ask someone this, as I will assume they identify as a particular gender, when perhaps they don’t. Maybe over time it will become more commonplace to ask.
I have a relative who transitioned from female to male and, although 99% of the time i say “he”, sometimes “she” just slips out by accident. In our case, these little mistakes don’t matter, as we both know that each of us have the best intentions and would never actively try to mis-gender the other. However, I have witnessed this kind of mistake be taken very offensively, when it was clearly an innocent slip-of-the-tongue. I understand that being misgendered must be an unsettling feeling, however, there is a big difference between someone doing it on purpose with the intention to offend and someone accidentally making a mistake. ”
