Celebrations for the fourth annual gender diversity awareness week kicked off Monday at lunch hour with a flag raising at city hall.

The week used to be called transgender awareness week, but was recently changed to be more inclusive of the gender diverse community.

At the event, the Jennifer Brockman of Prince Albert Gender and Sexual Diverse events handed out genderbread person cookies, designed to teach the difference between gender identity (whether someone identifies as male, female, gender fluid or gender queer), gender expression (how someone presents themselves to the outside world, either masculine, feminine or androgynous), biological sex (male, female or intersex) and sexual orientation (homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual or pansexual).

The cookie illustrated this by setting out the brain as representative of gender identity, the outside edge of the cookie as gender expression, the area between the legs as biological sex and the heart as sexual orientation.

Brockman found the concept online and thought it would help educate the public.

“(I) thought it was a really great way to create awareness by making these … cookies and handing out the little flyers about what gender identity, gender expression, biological sex and sexual orientation is, just to create awareness,” Brockman said. “People don’t always understand what those terms mean. It’s a fun and unique way to provide some education and to get an awesome cookie out of it.”

The cookies were also sold over the weekend as a part of a fundraiser where bannock dogs and Indian tacos were hand-delivered throughout P.A. The fundraiser brought in about $160 in profit.

Monday afternoon, a small crowd gathered to show their support for the gender diverse community.

For more on this story, please see the March 28 print or e-edition of the Daily Herald.