Important definitions

The OHRC defines gender expression as “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.”

Everyone has a gender expression, not only transgender people. Many people are gender-conforming, which means that their gender expression matches the expectations of other people around them in terms how they look and behave as someone of their gender identity (e.g., a masculine man, a feminine woman). For example, Mr. Magee is a man (his gender identity) who teaches Health and Physical Education. He keeps his hair tightly faded and is always in athletic wear, and has visible tattoos of tigers which are displayed when he wears short-sleeved shirts. Mr. Magee admires these animals for their strength and toughness, and feels the presence and design of his tattoos reflect his masculinity. These are a few ways that Mr. Magee expresses his gender identity as a man. By contrast, Ms. Truong teaches a Specialist High Skills Major in construction. She loves welding and woodworking, and teaches multiple courses in these areas. She has a shaved head and wears coveralls 90% of the time. When she isn’t teaching, Ms. Truong often wears camouflage pants and plain t-shirts. She doesn’t wear make-up or paint her nails, and whenever students joke about it she replies “my make-up is my sweat and my nail polish is the dirt underneath.” Ms. Truong’s is a woman (her gender identity), but her gender expression is more typically masculine. For this reason, Ms. Truong can be considered gender non-conforming. People who are gender non-conforming – whether or not they are transgender – can experience gender expression discrimination (keep reading).

Gender expression discrimination and gender identity discrimination can happen together, but they do not have to in order to trigger an organization’s responsibility to act. We will define gender expression and gender identity, and then come back to what discrimination on either ground might look like.

The next paragraphs revisit an example from the gender expression section above: Ms. Truong who is a woman who is gender non-conforming (her gender expression does not align with what is thought to be feminine in her context).

Because Ms. Truong is gender non-conforming, she may argue that she has experienced gender expression discrimination at school (i.e., at her workplace), as follows. Ms. Truong taught at her school for 15 years; however, when she began teaching there she decided to dress in a more typically feminine way as she wasn’t sure how her actual gender expression would be received. Over time, she gradually adjusted her gender expression at work to match the rest of her life, and noticed changes. The school board sponsored a mentoring retreat for women employees, but the liaison in Ms. Truong’s school did not include her in emails or other communications about the event, afterwards saying that she didn’t think Ms. Truong would want to attend because “you’re pretty much a guy anyway.” Some parents have also complained to administration about Ms. Truong’s appearance and behavior – that it “confuses students” – and the administration spoke with Ms. Truong about her “lack of professionalism.” At the end of the school year, her contract was not renewed, with no explanation given. Ms. Truong may be experiencing individual and institutional gender expression discrimination through deliberate exclusion from professional opportunities, sanctioning for gender non-conformity, and a denial of contract renewal for reasons potentially related to these ongoing responses to her non-conforming gender expression.

Gender identity discrimination is different, and generally takes the form of being somehow told that you are not who you are. It can be individual, such as when a transgender woman receives verbal abuse for accessing a women’s washroom (the term ‘harassment’ can also apply in this and similar situations), or it can be institutional, such as an online volunteer application form that requires someone to select either man or woman as gender options before allowing the form to be submitted.

It is important to note that gender identity discrimination is something that overwhelmingly happens to people who are transgender, and usually only when their transgender status is disclosed or known. It may also happen when someone is assumed by others to be transgender (regardless of whether this assumption is correct). However, gender expression discrimination is much more widely-experienced (and far less understood).

An example of individual and institutional gender identity discrimination is as follows. Mx. Winter is a new teacher at an elementary school where they teach music. Mx. Winter has “they/them” pronouns, which reflects the fact that they are nonbinary. When they asked for their name badge to include “Mx” the secretary replied that she didn’t think it would be possible as the name badge template is printed from the staff record, which only has ‘male’ (leading to a title of Mr.) and ‘female’ (leading to a title of Ms.) options. Mx. Winter’s name tag was printed with a ‘Mr.’ instead. As the all-gender staff washroom was under renovation, Mx. Winter was also told that they will have to “just use the men’s washroom.” When Mx. Winter spoke with the Vice-Principal about these issues, the VP was unsupportive and asked them, more or less directly, whether they have ‘transitioned sex’ and what their body looks like. When Mx. Winter declined to answer and instead offered to connect the VP with resources on nonbinary identity, the VP became frustrated and suggested that there was nothing to be done. Mx. Winter may have experienced institutional gender identity discrimination (name badge) and individual gender identity discrimination (communications with the VP).

Now that you’ve learned more about gender expression and gender identity, use gegi.ca’s school board-specific search tool to locate resources and your own school board’s policy documents, or find out how to proceed if these grounds are not yet included within them.