The gender identity scale: adapting the gender unicorn to measure gender identity

The Gender Unicorn is a popular infographic used to educate people about gender diversity. We adapt the Gender Unicorn for use as a measure of gender identity-the Gender Identity Scale (GIS)-in which participants report level of identification with each of three genders: female/woman/girl, male/man/boy, and other gender(s). We administer the GIS to a sample of 269 self-identified trans and gender diverse adults and use a latent class analysis of responses to identify seven gender classes. We find these classes to be consistent with participants' own designations of gender. These results support the utility of the GIS as a measure of gender that can be used with a gender diverse population.