Is Our Gender Expression “Free Speech?”

There is an interesting article about a conference at the Vermont Law School that says that our gender identity and expression is a form of “Free Speech,”

Law school addresses gender dysphoria as free speech
Rutland Herald
By Erin Mansfield
April 05, 2014

SOUTH ROYALTON — Vermont Law School students and professors have been celebrating the First Amendment with celebrations of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender culture — and making just enough people uncomfortable in the process that they might spark a cultural revolution.
[…]
“It’s the next civil-rights issue,” said VLS professor Gregory Johnson.
[…]
Event attendee Brett Hubbard said, “I still don’t understand what the big deal is. If you call yourself a boy, I’ll call you a boy.”

Third-year law student Emma Hempstead said, “We accommodate disabilities; we should accommodate gender ambiguities as well. Of course they should be allowed to serve (in the military). I think it’s absurd. That’s not even a question.”

Even though the title mentioned it as a Free Speech issue, the article didn’t really cover that aspect of the debate. But it does raise an interesting point, does our gender expression constitute a form of free speech. We use the phrase “gender expression” because that is our presentation to the world. If long hair and tee shirts are protected by First Amendment rights even through those are lifestyles and gender identity and expression are inborn traits, I would think how we identify ourselves would also be covered by the Frist Amendment.