Sexuality vs. Gender: What's the Difference?

While often conflated, they're not the same thing—let's clear up the confusion

Sexuality and gender are often assumed to be related concepts, but they are actually separate and distinct. Understanding the difference between sexuality vs. gender is important because, while both are important parts of an individual's sense of self, if you don't know what each one is, you may make incorrect assumptions.

For example, some people may assume that someone who is transgender is gay. But a transgender person's gender identity and sexual orientation aren't connected.

At a Glance

To better understand the differences between sexuality vs. gender, it's important to start by defining gender identity. Becoming more informed about these differences and the way that different identities can intersect can help you understand the impact of discrimination against gender-diverse and sexual minority individuals and the factors that can help mediate the negative effects of stigma and prejudice.

Understanding Sexuality vs. Gender

To understand the difference between sexuality vs. gender, it's helpful to know what each term means.

• Gender is socially constructed and one's innermost concept of themselves as a man, woman, and/or nonbinary person. People define their gender identity in a variety of deeply personal ways that can include man or woman but can also extend to identities such as agender, genderfluid, gender nonconforming, and a variety of others.
• Sexuality refers to who a person is attracted to and can include a plethora of orientations. While being gay, heterosexual, and bisexual are perhaps the most well-known sexual orientations, there are many others, such as asexual and pansexual.

While the terms are often conflated, recognizing the differences between sexuality and gender is important. Sexuality and gender are essential aspects of a person's identity and play a part in shaping a person's experiences throughout life.

What Is Gender and Gender Identity?

The American Psychological Association (APA) defines gender identity as "a person’s deeply felt, inherent sense of being a boy, a man, or male; a girl, a woman, or female; or an alternative gender, which may or may not correspond to a person’s sex assigned at birth."

Gender identity is personal and an inherent part of an individual's sense of self. While gender is often presented as a binary that only includes men and women, in reality, gender is a spectrum. People can define their gender in a variety of waysinc! This includes a combination of woman and man, a completely separate gender, or no gender at all.

The four types of gender applied to living and nonliving things are masculine, feminine, neuter, and common.

Gender Identity vs. Gender Expression

Gender identitybody language

Gender Identity vs. Sex

The terms sex and gender are often used interchangeably, and people often assume that the sex one is assigned at birth dictates the gender one is. In reality, though, gender identity and sex refer to different things.

While gender identity refers to how one defines themselves, sex is biological and dictated by one's anatomy, hormones, and chromosomes.

Just like gender identity, sex is a continuum that isn't limited to male or female, as people can also be born intersex, meaning their bodies aren't biologically male or female.

What Is Sexuality?

Sexuality is another word for sexual orientation. The APA defines sexual orientation as "a component of identity that includes a person's sexual or emotional attraction to another person and the behavior that may result from this attraction.

Sexual vs. Romantic Attraction

It's important to recognize that sexual and emotional attraction may not always match for asexual and aromantic people. Someone may be sexually attracted to one gender but experience no romantic attraction, whereas they may be romantically attracted to another gender but not want to engage in sexual acts.

What Is the Split Attraction Model?

Sexual Fluidity

Sexual orientationsexual fluidity

Effects of Sexuality and Gender Discrimination

Unfortunately, transgender people or those whose sexual orientation is something other than heterosexual often encounter discrimination and prejudice. In the past few decades, both gender identity and sexual orientation have become political flashpoints.

Social and Political Effects

A case revolving around whether people who were not heterosexual had the right to marry went all the way to the Supreme Court, and the judges' ruling led to marriage equality. Many states have passed or are debating laws about issues involving transgender people, such as whether to prevent transgender men and women from using the bathroom that matches their gender identity.

The fact that issues surrounding the rights of gender-diverse and sexual minority people are up for debate contributes to a climate where discrimination is still common against anyone who isn't straight and cisgender. Research shows gender diverse and sexual minority individuals suffer from physical and psychological abuse, bullying, and persecution in a variety of contexts, including school, the workplace, and health care.

People can become preoccupied with an individual's gender expression or sexual orientation if it doesn't conform to social norms, and they may make their lack of support clear by doing things like using incorrect pronouns to refer to the individual.

In fact, a 2019 report of the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth in American schools, found that over half of LGBTQ+ students were verbally harassed and that over one-fifth were physically harassed due to their sexual orientation or gender expression.

Mental Health Effects

This kind of prejudice and discrimination puts gender-diverse and sexual minority individuals at an increased risk of mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and suicide. On the other hand, an individual's journey to determining their sexuality or gender identity is personal. Suppressing one's true gender or sexual identity can lead to mental health issues as well.

Discrimination continues to be a serious problem for people with diverse identities, but there are things that can help. Studies have shown that the mental distress triggered by discrimination can be mediated by:

• Social and familial support
• Contact with other sexual minorities or others who are gender diverse
• Expectations of acceptance

Taking steps to combat discrimination based on sexuality and gender can be beneficial. LGBTQ students in schools with gay-straight alliances, LGBTQ-inclusive curriculums, and supportive educators felt safer and experienced a greater sense of belonging at school.

Takeaways

Both gender identity and sexual orientation are important to parts of a person's overall identity. But it's important to recognize they are not the same thing and knowing the differences between sexuality vs. gender is critical.

In each case, social constructs surrounding sexuality and gender continue to result in prejudices that negatively impact gender-diverse and sexual minority individuals. This may be one reason why many people continue to conflate these constructs.

People must recognize that for individuals, sexuality and gender are not inherently linked. Never make assumptions about a person's sexual orientation based on gender or vice versa. Instead, people need to feel free to explore and define their gender identity and sexual orientation in the way that feels best to them. In doing so, they can be the truest version of themselves.

What Is Gender Essentialism Theory?

Cynthia Vinney, PhD is an expert in media psychology and a published scholar whose work has been published in peer-reviewed psychology journals.