International Non-Binary Day
A recent report from the Williams Institute found that approximately 1.2 million LGBTQIA+ adults identify as non-binary.
In American culture, we have long assumed a gender binary, which is that gender falls into only two, mutually exclusive categories, male or female.
Non-binary people’s lived experience do not fit with this definition of gender.
Beyond that, non-binary people’s identities are as unique and varied as they are.
They may experience their gender on a spectrum between male and female and that their experience moves along that continuum.
Some may experience their gender as made up of varying proportions of male and female.
Some may not experience themselves in any gendered way.
And still others may have another way of experiencing their gender. Regardless of how they experience themselves, their gender is valid.
Although the media tends to portray non-binary folx as androgynous, they can present in many other ways. Again, this varies by person.
Some non-binary folx may use they/them pronouns, or neopronouns, but they may also use gendered pronouns.
Non-binary is shortened to enby because nb has historically meant non-Black.