Non-Binary Gender 101

1. Non-Binary Gender 101

2. What is Gender? • A complex combination of roles, expressions, identities, performances, and more which is assigned gendered meaning. • Gender is self-defined as well as defined by the larger society through gender roles. • Sex is defined and assigned by doctors. • Male assigned at birth (MAAB) • Female assigned at birth (FAAB) • Intersex people usually have an assigned gender • Sex does not equal gender.

3. Binary Gender Girl Boy

4. Non-Binary Gender • Bi/Poly/Pangender • Genderfluid • Agender • Gender Neutral/ Neutrois • Third Gender • and many more. Buckle up.

5. Some English Pronouns Gender Neutral He/Him/His/His/ Himself She/Her/Her/Hers/ Herself They/Them/Their/ Theirs/Themself Ze/Hir/Hir/Hirs/Hirself Ey/Em/Eir/Eirs/Emself Ou/Ou/Ou/Ous/Ouself Binary

6. Bi/Poly/Pangender • Experience of two or more genders and/or a shift between them. • “Some days I wake up and feel like a woman. Other days I wake up and feel like a man.  Sometimes feeling like a woman or man depends on who I’m with.” • “I’ve always been male, and I’ve always been female, too. I’ve always been both.”

7. Genderfluid • Experience of gender that changes. • “I have boy days and girl days and some days where I’m somewhere in between or I don’t really know what I am.” • “My gender floats around. I’d spent years trying to pin it down, but I finally decided to stop. I don’t need to pin it down – I’m going to live in this funny, middle, around space.”

8. Agender • Having no experience of gender. • “Genderless” is sometimes a synonym. • “I have a complete lack of "gender" feelings. Gender is a language I don’t speak.” • “I didn’t know what it meant, exactly, to be a girl or a boy, all I knew was that I wasn’t either.”

9. Gender Neutral/Neutrois • Experience of a single gender-neutral gender. • “It’s not an absence of gender, and it’s not apathy about my gender… I care very strongly about my gender, my gender expression, and my gender perception. I have a gender, and it’s a neutral gender.”

10. Third Gender • Umbrella term for non-binary genders that exist in specific cultures, including: • Two-Spirit (NDN) • Hijra (SE Asia) • Meti (Nepal) • Ashtime (Maale; S Ethiopia) • Fa’afafine (Samoa) • Bakla (Philippines) • Bissu, Calabai, & Calalai (Bugis; Indonesia) • Among hundreds of others.

11. And others • Non-binary & genderqueer are blanket terms, so they cover other variations in gender identity that don’t necessarily fit anything we’ve talked about. • “Gender is not a line - it is a huge three-dimensional spacewith infinite points.” • Some people prefer to simply identify as non-binary/genderqueer, rather than try to find a box. • What matters is how people choose to describe themselves – they know their gender best.

12. Binary World Many things are gendered, like IDs, bathrooms, pronouns, titles, formal clothing, housing, etc. It can be extremely erasing, painful and/or dangerous to be stuck in a binary (usually cisgender) space.

14. Sex: MF X • Some countries allow “other” option on identification • Australia, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and growing • Great for intersex, non-binary and other trans* people

15. Be Non-Binary Friendly • Be aware • Don’t assume that people are cisgender or binary. If someone tells you to use a name or pronoun, absolutely do your best to use it. • Be educated • Don’t tell people that their identity is invalid. Ever, really. Bad form in any situation. • Don’t erase non-binary people. • Make LGBT spaces safe and friendly for non-binary people.

16. Questions? People are complicated, and that’s why we’re awesome.