Legal sex, gender and sexual orientation data collection
In accordance with Oregon Senate Bill 473 passed in 2015, guidance from the Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC) and the Gender Inclusive Spaces Committee, Portland Community College has updated the collection of biographical data to include legal sex designation, gender, and sexual orientation.
Collection of data on gender and sexual orientation is both confidential and optional. Students do not have to provide this information and general college departments and staff will not be able to see a student’s answers.
When and where will this information be collected?
When students apply for admission to PCC as credit students, these questions will appear in the Personal Information section of the application alongside current demographic questions.
Why are we collecting this information?
- Legal sex designation*: PCC is required to collect this data in order to comply with federal reporting including IPEDS reporting, student employment, international student status and the granting of federal financial aid. If you are an employee or federal aid recipient your designation must match your sex designation with the Social Security office. If you are an international student your designation must match the sex designation on your passport.
- Gender*: PCC 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 PCC 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 PCC.
*The categories listed for all three questions were designated by the HECC.
Note: This information will not be used in admission decisions.
Who has access to this information?
Your name associated with your responses will only be available to the PCC Registrar and the Office of Institutional Effectiveness. Your individual responses will not be view-able by general college departments or staff. Percentages and category totals will be available to administrative departments at PCC. You will not be contacted based on your response.
Percentages and totals will be reported to the state of Oregon as required by Senate Bill 473.
Other notes
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.
Sexual orientation and gender identity are protected under PCC’s Nondiscrimination and Non-Harassment Policy.
If you need help or have questions about updating your information in the PCC system, please contact the Queer Resource Center at your campus.
Glossary of terms
Agender
Not identifying with any gender, the feeling of having no gender.
Asexual
Someone who does not experience sexual attraction or an intrinsic desire to have sexual relationships.
Bisexual
An umbrella term for people who experience sexual and/or emotional attraction to more than one gender (pansexual, fluid, omnisexual, queer, etc).
Cisgender
Someone who is cisgender has a gender identity that is the same as the gender they were assigned at birth. Cisgender is the opposite of transgender/trans. “Cisgender” is preferred over terms like “biological”, “genetic”, or “real” male or female which set up cis people as the norm and trans people as the inadequate other.
Gay
The adjective used to describe people whose enduring physical, romantic and/or emotional attractions are to people of the same sex.
Genderfluid
A person who does not identify with a single fixed gender; of or relating to a person having or expressing a fluid or unfixed gender identity.
Gender identity
Your internal sense of self; how you relate to your 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.
Intersex
An umbrella term describing people born with reproductive or sexual anatomy and/or a chromosome pattern that can’t be classified as typically male or female.
Legal sex designation
The sex that is indicated on government issued ID, such as a passport, driver’s license or social security registration.
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+).
Non-binary, gender variant, gender non-conforming, genderqueer
Terms used by some people who experience their gender identity and/or gender expression as falling outside the categories of man and woman.
Pansexual
Capable of being attracted to many or any gender or genders.
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 or 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.
Questioning
A term used to describe those who are in a process of discovery and exploration about their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or a combination thereof.