Every year, the Seattle-based Gender Odyssey Conference attracts hundreds of people from across the country and around the world to learn about gender diversity.

Founder Aiden Key is dedicated to providing support and information to families, educators, therapists and medical providers about children and others who are gender non-conforming.

Gender non-conforming is one term used to describe someone whose biological sex and gender identity don’t align. Confused? You’re not alone — but if you live this every day, I apologize in advance for oversimplification.

Each of us has a biological sex, most often assigned at birth, based on physical characteristics. For many of us, that is male or female. For some, there are hormonal or chromosomal differences that cause biological sex to be less than clear. These conditions are known as intersex conditions, or diversity in sexual development.

Each of us also has a gender identity. This is our deep, internal sense of what gender we are. For most people, gender identity aligns with biological sex, but for others, it does not.

Some words you may have heard to describe this are transgender or gender non-conforming. For some, their identity is clearly male while their body is female, or their identity is clearly female and their body is male. For others, their identity is more ambiguous or fluid, regardless of what their body looks like.

Some gender non-conforming people change the pronouns they use to refer to themselves. Some receive hormone therapy. Some get surgery to help their bodies match their internal gender identity. And some do none of these.

Gender identity is not just how we dress or present ourselves. For example, many women wear pants. That does not mean any woman in pants has an internal sense of being a man. Some guys have long hair. That doesn’t mean any man with long hair has an internal sense of being a woman.

While our society has made some progress in accepting some diversity in gender expression, we’ve made less headway in understanding gender identity.

Imagine how comforting it would be for a parent of a gender non-conforming child to pick up the August edition of “Parent Map” and see a huge article entitled “Beyond Pink and Blue: How Our Kids’ Generation is Redefining Gender.”

Imagine how uplifting it would be to find a support group through Gender Diversity (www.genderdiversity.org). Imagine how much of a relief it would be to find a place where you felt safe and accepted and not at risk of violence or ridicule.

Imagine how refreshing it would be to attend the Gender Odyssey conference and find information about health care for you or your child, information about how to navigate school and work challenges, a place to meet people who have been or are on this journey, too.

Here are a few every day ways you can be more understanding and welcoming of people of different gender identities:

• Respect a person’s identity and what pronouns or words they use to describe who they are.

• Designate a bathroom as gender-neutral at your event, your church, your workplace.

• Use the words “children” instead of “boys and girls” or “people” instead of “women and men.”

• Do not assume a person’s gender identity because of how they look.

• Get educated. Go to www.genderdiversity.org/resources/terminology/ to learn more about terminology and language.  Want more? Here are a few books that discuss gender:

• “The Transgender Child,” by Stephanie Brill and Rachel Pepper

• “Helping Your Transgender Teen,” by Irwin Krieger

• “The Social Justice Advocate’s Handbook: A Guide to Gender,” by Sam Killermann

Educate yourself. Educate others. And respect everyone.

Amy Johnson, MSW, is a trainer, educator and coach in the Pacific Northwest. She is co-author of the books, “Parenting by Strengths: A Parent’s Guide for Challenging Situations” and “Homegrown Faith and Justice.” Amy facilitates classes and workshops in the Puget Sound area and online. She specializes in working with parents and in sexuality education. Amy can be reached at comments@diligentjoy.com.