In accordance with Oregon Senate Bill 473, and guidance from the Commission on Sexual and Gender Equity, Portland State University has updated the collection of biographical data to include legal sex designation, gender and sexual orientation.
Why Are We Collecting this Information?
- Legal sex designation*: For Portland State records, your legal sex designation should match what is recorded on a government-issued ID (such as driver’s license, state ID card, or passport), and may be different than your gender. If you are not a citizen or permanent resident of the US, your legal sex designation should match your passport. We collect this information in accordance with state and federal reporting requirements.
- Gender*: PSU recognizes that gender is not limited to, nor always congruent with, the categories available in legal sex designation.
- Sexual orientation*: Along with other biographical information such as race, collecting sexual orientation allows PSU and the state of Oregon to analyze important information related to student success and retention rates for specific communities of students. This allows us to advocate for resources, scholarships and provide appropriate services at PSU.
*The categories listed for all three questions were designated by the State of Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC).
Note: This information will not be used in admission decisions.
Who Has Access to this Information?
Unit level data (your name associated with your responses) related to gender and sexual orientation will only be available to the Office of Global Diversity and Inclusion and the Queer Resource Center as well as limited staff in offices that are responsible for data collection for the institution. Your individual responses will not be viewable by general university departments. Aggregate information (percentages and category totals) will be available to administrative departments at the institution.
Legal Sex data is reported through IPEDS to the National Center for Educational Statistics and to the HECC (Higher Educational Coordinating Commission of Oregon). Data will be reported to the state of Oregon as required by Senate Bill 473.
How Will we Use this Information?
The Queer Resource Center may send information directly to students including resources, scholarship opportunities and event information. The Office of Global Diversity and Inclusion may send similar information on behalf of other departments when appropriate.
Other Notes
You may add or update your gender and sexual orientation in your myPSU account under the My Account Resources section of the My Account page. In order to update your legal sex designation you will need to provide government-issued ID to the Office of the Registrar if you are a student or Human Resources if you are an employee. Your legal sex designation must match your federal sex designation or the sex designation on your passport if you are an international student or employee.
Sexual orientation and gender identity are protected under PSU's Prohibited Discrimination and Harassment Policy.
Please email Queer Resource Center Director, at qrc@pdx.edu with questions, comments or concerns.
Glossary of Terms
Agender - not identifying with any gender, the feeling of having no gender
Androgyne - 1. A person whose biological sex is not readily apparent. 2. A person who is intermediate between the two traditional genders. 3. A person who rejects gender roles entirely.
Bisexual - An umbrella term for people who experience sexual and/or emotional attraction to more than one gender (pansexual, fluid, omnisexual, queer, etc).
Cisgender/Cis - The adjective used to describe a person who identifies as their sex assigned at birth.
Gay - The adjective used to describe people whose enduring physical, romantic and/or emotional attractions are to people of the same sex.
Gender queer or Gender fluid - An identity commonly used by people who do not identify or express their gender within the gender binary.
Gender/gender identity - One’s internal sense of being male, female, neither of these, both, or other gender(s).
IPEDS – Integrated Post-Secondary Education Data System used by the National Center for Education Statistics to collect and analyze data related to education in the U.S.
Legal Sex Designation - the sex that is indicated on government issued ID, such as a passport, driver’s license or social security registraiton.
Lesbian - A woman whose enduring physical, romantic and/or emotional attraction is to other women.
LGBTQQIAPP+ - A collection of identities short for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, aromantic, pansexual, polysexual (sometimes abbreviated to LGBT or LGBTQ+).
Pansexual - Capable of being attracted to many/any gender(s).
Queer - A term for people of marginalized gender identities and sexual orientations who are not cisgender and/or heterosexual. This term has a complicated history as a reclaimed slur.
Same-gender loving - A term sometimes used by members of the African-American/Black community to express an alternative sexual orientation without relying on terms and symbols of European descent.
Sex - refers to a person’s biological status and is typically categorized as male, female, or intersex.
Sexual orientation - A person’s physical, romantic, emotional, aesthetic, and/or other form of attraction to others.
Straight/Heterosexual - An adjective used to describe people whose enduring physical, romantic and/or emotional attraction is to people of the opposite sex.
Transgender - An umbrella term for people whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. The term transgender is not indicative of gender expression, sexual orientation, hormonal makeup, physical anatomy, or how one is perceived in daily life.
Trans man - Trans man generally describes someone assigned female at birth who identifies as a man.
Trans woman - Trans woman generally describes someone assigned male at birth who identifies as a woman.
Additional Information
Genderqueer and Non-Binary Identities & Terminology.
LGBTQ+ Definitions. Trans Students Educational Resources.
GLAAD Media Reference Guide - Lesbian / Gay / Bisexual Glossary Of Terms.
LGBTQI Terminology. LGBT Resource Center at UC Riverside 2003-2004.
Definition of Terms: Sex, Gender, Gender Identity, Sexual Orientation. American Psychological Association.