Gender modality

Gender modality is the relationship between one's gender and the sex that they were assigned at birth.^[1] 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^[2] in 2022 to describe the "broad category which includes being trans[gender] and being cis[gender]."^[3] 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.^[3]

The term has been applied in trans health^[4] and education literature,^[1] and by governments^[5] and courts.^[6]