Gender

Do people choose to be gender variant?

Research on the development of gender variant identities suggests that it is linked to a number of factors including neurological, hormonal, biological, social and relational influences and is not a passing phase. Instead, the development of gender identity, including a gender variant identity, occurs in stages across the lifespan. Studies on gender variant individuals suggest that the awareness and experience of being ‘different’ begins as a child, and that there is a long history of internal tension between the individual’s anatomical sex and their sense of their gender that extends into adolescence and, in some cases, beyond.