• Gender identity (sooline identiteet, sooidentiteet) refers to a person’s internal sense of gender — how they experience, perceive, and understand their own gendered self. A gender identity can, for example, be man, woman, nonbinary, agender, and so on. A person’s gender identity may or may not align with the sex assigned to them at birth. One cannot assume someone’s gender identity based on their appearance, voice, gestures, or behavior.
  • Transgender person, or simply trans person (transsooline inimene, transinimene) — a person whose gender identity differs from the sex assigned to them at birth. Although the adjective transsooline (transgender) relates to gender identity, it is not itself a gender identity category, but rather a term describing the relationship between a person’s gender identity and their sex assigned at birth. Trans people may therefore have any gender identity. The difference between gender identity and sex assigned at birth is not a medical condition, although many trans people may wish or need to access healthcare related to gender transition.
  • Transgender woman, or simply trans woman (transsooline naine, transnaine) — a person whose gender identity is female, but whose sex assigned at birth was not female.
    A cisgender woman (paiksooline naine, cis-naine), by contrast, is a person whose gender identity is female and whose sex assigned at birth was also female.
    A trans woman and a cis woman share the same gender identity but have different sexes assigned at birth.
  • Transgender man, or simply trans man (transsooline mees, transmees) — a person whose gender identity is male, but whose sex assigned at birth was not male.
    A cisgender man (paiksooline mees, cis-mees), by contrast, is a person whose gender identity is male and whose sex assigned at birth was also male.
    A trans man and a cis man share the same gender identity but have different sexes assigned at birth.
  • Nonbinary person (mittebinaarne inimene) — a person whose gender identity does not conform to the binary gender system. A nonbinary person may describe their gender as existing between woman and man, as both at once, as genderless, as fluid, or as composed of multiple genders. Because a nonbinary person’s sex assigned at birth does not align with their experienced gender, nonbinary people fall under the broader definition of transgender people. However, not all nonbinary people choose to describe themselves through the term transgender.
  • Sexual orientation (seksuaalne orientatsioon) refers to a person’s capacity to feel — or not to feel — affection, as well as romantic and sexual attraction, and their desire or lack of desire to form intimate or sexual relationships with someone of the same or a different gender, with more than one gender, or regardless of gender.

You can find a more detailed glossary at the end of this guide.