Gender Identity & Expression Policy

Gender expression and identity discrimination tends to be a blind spot in organizational efforts to comply with human rights laws. While general anti-discrimination policies mention these traits, they rarely address the topic specifically. Here’s a gender expression and identity discrimination template that you can use, either as a freestanding policy or as an addition to incorporate into your general anti-discrimination policy.

  1. POLICY

ABC Company recognizes the inherent dignity and worth of all individuals and is committed to providing all job applicants and employees equal opportunities and rights without discrimination, as well as a workplace that is respectful, inclusive, understanding, free of harassment and psychologically healthy. ABC Company does not in any way discriminate on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, gender expression or gender identity.

  1. PURPOSE

The purpose of this Policy is to set forth clear guidelines to address the needs and protect the legal rights of employees who are transgender and gender non-conforming employees in a way to ensure their safety, comfort, privacy and self-dignity while maximizing workplace integration and minimizing stigmatization.

  1. DEFINITIONS

The purpose of these definitions is not to affix labels but clarify terms that must be understood to achieve the objectives of this Policy, including:

  • “Gender expression” is how a person publicly presents their gender, including via behaviour, outward appearance such as dress, hair, make-up, body language, voice and chosen name;
  • “Gender identity” means a person’s internal, deeply-felt sense of being male, female or something other or in-between, regardless of the sex they were assigned at birth;
  • “Gender non-conforming” refers to individuals who have, or are perceived to have, gender characteristics and/or behaviours that do not conform to traditional or societal expectations;
  • “Transgender” is a broad term used to describe people whose gender identity and/or expression is different from their sex assigned at birth. Subsets of the term include:
    • FTM, or female-to-male transgender person, aka, transgender man, is a person whose sex assigned at birth was female but who identifies as male;
    • MTF, or male-to-female transgender person, aka, transgender woman, is a person whose sex assigned at birth was male but who identifies as female

Note: Some people described by this definition don’t consider themselves transgender, and may use other words, or identify simply as a man or…