Gender and sex are different things!

This is an issue I'm a little passionate about. I believe in equal rights for everyone, and since I'm a senior, I wanted to make a bill to that effect. At first I wanted to make a bill that was about making sure there were public facilities that allowed for use by people outside of the gender binary, but I realized I wouldn't get anywhere trying to pass it. The fact is, members of the trans* community (transgender, transsexual people) are so misunderstood and oppressed that many people don't even know of their struggle.

Let me get this straight first for those who don't know. Gender is a social construct. That means that it is not part of a human at birth, it is assigned to people based on their sex. If you're confused right now allow me to describe the difference between sex and gender.
Sex is the biological part of someone, rather, whether they have female or male sex organs. There are also inter-sex people, or people with sex organs that do not fit solidly into "male" or "female," so even biological sex is not strictly speaking a binary.
People aren't in charge of their assigned sex and so sometimes gender identity and sex "disagree."
Gender is all a matter of identity. It is what you choose to be called (she or he, woman or man,) and what you identify with. Like sexuality, gender is a spectrum. There are not only "girls" and "boys" who are defined only by the sex organs they were born with (we call people whose sex and gender agree "cisgender." This would include myself, I am a cisgender female). In fact, gender means different things for everyone. What's feminine and masculine is totally different between cultures and between individuals, too! Genderqueer is a term people use when they don't identify entirely with being a girl, or a boy. Sometimes it's appropriate to use gender-ambiguous pronouns like "zhe" when referring to these people but only if they ask you to.

Why do I think it's important to learn the difference between gender and sex, and understand that both are spectra? Because I want everyone to be educated and tolerant. I notice that people seem to be very intolerant of trans* individuals as a whole so I thought I'd make a post trying to educate people.

Those of you more familiar with this than me, feel free to correct me or add something!