New study finds genderqueer people face unique patterns of abuse and discrimination »
The study, A Gender Not Listed Here: Genderqueers, Gender Rebels, and OtherWise in the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, was just published by the LGBTQ Policy Journal at the Harvard Kennedy School. It examines the experiences of genderqueer individuals and others who clearly identified as neither a man nor a woman.
You can find the summary and full report at the link above or at the Williams Institute website.
"I just don't understand how you can be non-binary-gendered. That is, not female or male." »
I want you to lie for me. If you’re a woman, say “I am a man.” If you’re a man, say “I am a woman.” Say it out loud. Say it to your reflection. Do you feel that little disconnect there, where the sentiment you’re articulating doesn’t match up with the reality you experience? You know you’re lying. Even if someone else comes up and says “Hey! That’s right! That’s definitely what you are,” you will still know you’re lying.
I can’t speak for everyone, but that’s what happens to me when I try to place myself as either male or female. I could stand up and say “I am a man,” and know, to my bones, that I was lying. Just as I’d be lying if I said “I am a woman.”
It’s not a matter of thinking, “I can’t be a man/woman if I want to do or like these things.” I know that as a woman, I could still have a career, join the military, roughhouse, be athletic, be great at science – all those stereotypically male things. I know that as a man, I could still stay at home, raise kids, bake, knit, show my emotions easily and often – all those stereotypically female things. My gender identity is not about what I want to do, it’s about who I am.
This is not a new idea. Cultures across the globe have acknowledged more than two genders, from the Middle Kingdom of Egypt to the Lakota of North America, from Mayan civilization to the Siberian Chuckhi. References to persons neither male nor female date back to some of humanity’s most ancient written records, such as the Sumerian creation myth, and survive in seminal religious texts such as the Ramayana and the Halakha.
If you want to learn more, the citation list on Wikipedia’s article on “Third gender” has links and references to scholarly articles, books, studies, and excerpts which might help you get an idea of the nature and history of various non-binary identities. Or you can look at more contemporary accounts, such as Neutrois.com, or the discussion on AVEN’s site on “What it feels like to be trans, genderqueer or genderless”. Remember that no single narrative will be able to represent all people, and different nonbinary people may have different preferred terms, explanations, and experiences.
(via neutrois)
Gender Neutral Bathroom Challenge »
The challenge: Don’t use any gendered bathrooms or change rooms for the month of April.
What are “gendered bathrooms”? Gendered bathrooms are designated for “men” or “women” by a sign. This challenges includes ALL multi-stall and single-stall washrooms, and the bathrooms at work, schools, libraries, bars/restaurants, and everywhere, really.
There are multiple purposes for this challenge:1) To give people who don’t find going to gendered bathrooms a difficult/unsafe experience a small idea of what it is like for trans and gender variant people to navigate this world. Hopefully, with some real life experience, you will have a broader understanding of how gendered this world really is. But,
DOING THIS DOES NOT GIVE YOU AUTHORITY TO SAY WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE TRANS OR GENDER VARIANT.
2) To inspire people to fight for more gender neutral bathrooms.Tips:
- Don’t drink a lot of liquid if you are leaving the house for long periods of time
- Try to figure out where some gender neutral bathrooms are in your town/city, and plan your day around using a gender neutral bathroom.
- Remember, you can use gendered bathrooms again in May. Some people can’t.
And, even if you really have to go to the bathroom, try to not see gendered bathrooms as a possible place to go.
If you are interested, feel free to write your experiences down and send them to gnbchallenge@gmail.com. With your permission, they will be included in a zine on the topic of gendered bathrooms.We also recommend fighting for gender neutral bathrooms in one (or more) public space(s). Often the fight for this aspect of bathroom accessibility is only fought for by trans and gender variant people; It would be nice if other people fought for it too.
(There’s also a Facebook event:https://www.facebook.com/events/209510742488108/)
—-
PLEASE SIGNAL BOOST!
kyrianne adds:
It would be an interesting caveat to add if you can’t find a gender neutral bathroom, you have to use the one you normally wouldn’t use, but that could cause some actual violence (which happens to trans* people on a regular basis, obviously, but for a thing like this that’s probably not the best ever)
I guess if you want the full experience you could add that to it?
Today is UK trans* activist organisation Trans Media Action’s Trans Camp event, bringing media and IT professionals together with trans* people to make positive change.
As part of the preparations, trans* people from across the UK were asked to give one minute video responses on the topics of childhood, media, comedy and family.
This is my response to the question of media representation. As a nonbinary person I felt erased or misrepresented by recent media coverage…
I’m nonbinary, that means I live as something other than a woman or a man. It also means I have next to no representation in the media.
Even in documentaries featuring trans* people with genderqueer or gender binary challenging identities or histories, like some of the participants in My Transsexual Summer, these are simplified, glossed over or completely edited out in fear of ‘confusing’ the general public.
If my life experiences are ever touched upon, they’re simplified to the point of misrepresentation. If I’m to be hinted at, it’s in the suggestion that some people are ‘in between’.
My gender and my body are not ‘between’ anything. My gender is not a balancing act. I’m not in the middle ground, I haven’t gone halfway and stopped. I am not half a woman and half a man, I’m not following two sets of sexist stereotypes. I do not ‘pick and choose’ about gender. And I’m not ‘on the fence’. And I’ve definitely not ‘de-transitioned’.
I’m a trans* person, I’m doing what I need to do to be true to myself.
Of course not all nonbinary people object to being described as ‘in between’; that’s an accurate description of some people’s gender identities. But there are many more people besides me whose experiences of being agender, bigender, fluid gender, genderqueer etc are erased by that simplification.
In my case, I experienced gender dysphoria and I did what it was necessary to do to become comfortable with my body. Doing so didn’t fix my social dysphoria though. I tried to be a ‘classic transsexual’, I tried to pretend to be a gender I didn’t truly feel I was. But I found ‘passing’ made me just as socially dysphoric as my assigned gender role had done.
It turned out that transition just wasn’t the perfect ‘package deal’ I’d been sold in the brochure, I had to go off the beaten track to find my own way to authentically express myself to the world.
It would be nice to see this represented in the media at all, especially on TV shows where some of the participants have similar feelings.
(And no, ‘androgyny’ and ‘androgyne’ don’t have to mean ‘in between’; the dictionary definition boils down to ‘having both male and female traits’, and anyway that’s my appearance not my gender).
Trans Camp: UK Trans Media Action needs your videos »
The UK trans* activist organisation Trans Media Action is running Trans Camp on January 13th at the offices of Channel 4.
Trans Camp will bring together trans* people, developers, designers and innovators to come up with ideas to improve the lives of trans* people using web technologies and the media.
In order to make sure the widest range of experiences are covered, they’re looking for one minute video responses from trans* people around the UK explaining their experiences:
Although around half of the participants will be trans there will also be people there who have never knowingly come across a trans person.
So, we want your short video responses to one or more of these questions. You can use your phone, webcam or something fancier – it doesn’t matter as long as we can hear you and see you (or whatever you choose to film while you’re speaking or subtitling.)
Your videos will be played at Channel 4 on 13th January to the participants of Trans Camp. They will also be put together on a website for people to see in the run up to the camp and afterwards. Your videos will be public so you must be sure you’re happy for them to be seen by anyone online.
Why? We want to give those who are new to trans issues an idea of the diversity within the trans community. We want to bring to life some of the questions we’re asking with real people’s voices.
QUESTIONS: Answer ONE* question per video – max 1 minute
- CHILDHOOD: For those of you who knew, what was it like growing up as a trans child?
- MEDIA: How does media coverage of trans people affect you?
- COMEDY: How do comedy portrayals of trans people affect you?
- FAMILY: How have you experienced support, or lack of, from family and friends?
*You can answer more than one question if you like, just make a separate video.
If you’re in the United Kingdom and trans* nonbinary, genderqueer or otherwise gender variant or gender nonconforming, please consider submitting a video to make sure the full diversity of trans* experiences are represented in this important project.
Full instructions on how to submit your video responses
* The asterisk at the end of ‘trans*’ denotes that this is the wider inclusive form of trans that includes all transgender, transsexual, nonbinary, genderqueer, gender variant and gender nonconforming people regardless of gender identity or expression.
CAMAB butch trans women talk about their past and current genderqueer, nonbinary or gender-binary-challenging self identities at the Butch Voices conference:
I’m really uncomfortable with nonconsensually identifying folks by their assigned sex at birth. If someone were to take a video I was in, and attached the sex I was coercively assigned at birth along with that video, I would be pretty darned uncomfortable.
Also: I’m pretty sure not everyone in the panel identifies as a woman.
yeahhh the panel was called “butch trans women” and brynn and tobi both identify as genderqueer butch trans women. jamie is genderfluid, and i now identify as femme. i don’t like that the CAMAB part was included in this description.
Thanks for the feedback, I prevaricated repeatedly over how to describe this video as, after watching the two parts posted on YouTube so far, it seemed that at least one of the panelists wasn’t self describing as a woman or solely as a woman (based on the agender-fluid description at ~11 minutes), and I even got some way into writing an abortive critique of the wider problematic tendency to apply labels like MTF/FTM, trans woman/trans guy or transfeminine/transmasculine as umbrella terms covering nonbinary people who don’t necessarily identify as female/male, womens/guys or feminine/masculine.
My interpretation was that the panel was actually talking about trans* butch experiences and identities of people coercively assigned male at birth, including the experiences of both trans women and nonbinary people, but I erred on the side of caution and followed the description(s) used in the videos’ titles and their on screen captions (but in an unfortunately problematic way as you’ve rightfully noted).
I’m extremely careful to only refer to gender assignments at birth when it’s directly relevant information revealed within the source material I’m linking to. I judged in this case that it’s a big part of what the video/panel is about (although after re-watching I realise that it’s mainly discussed in part one of the panel on identities and role models rather than the one embedded here and only explicitly explained by two out of the four panelists).
There is a definite shortage of discussion and representation of CAMAB butch, nonbinary and genderqueer experiences and role models (as discussed in part one of the video) so I do look for those and highlight them when I find them. But again, only when the people I’m linking to are explicitly mentioning their birth assignment as relevant.
So I apologise, I should not have assumed that people on a panel called ‘Butch Trans Women’ would necessarily hold that identity (I know I’ve spoken on conference panels with titles I didn’t identify or agree with before!) and should not have assumed that all four panelists would be happy to be identified as CAMAB despite the use of that label by half the panel. I’ve now edited the original post to simply give the title of the panel. Thanks again for calling me out on this.
Panelists on the Butch Voices conference Butch Trans Women panel talk about their past and current genderqueer, nonbinary or gender-binary-challenging self identities.
Radically Queer: 11/27 #transchat recap »
The first of a new regular #transchat discussion took place on Twitter today, initially discussing the concept of ‘stealth’, being out, disclosure, openness and privacy around trans* identities and histories. People with a varied range of experiences contributed, including several nonbinary and genderqueer people.
This week we focused on the concept of “stealth,” with related topics like coming out, passing, and the relationship between gender expression and how others perceive an individual’s gender/gender identity.
We started by trying to define “stealth,” and realized that though the term has a mostly-negative connotation for most people, it has different meanings. ”Stealth” can be used by cis people as an accusation that implies a duty to disclose, particularly in sexual/romantic situations. It also is used by some trans people, though, to indicate a breaking of community ties with the trans community.
…
Another question that came up a lot is what “stealth” or “passing” means for non-binary people.
queernetic I’m nonbinary. “Stealth” for me is “passing” as my assigned gender. I have no socially recognized gender to “pass” as. #transchat
quarridors #transchat I think there are two issues here, disclosing details of ones assignment at birth/medical history and being ‘out’ as transgender.
queerscholar @quarridors @Helenarth I’ve started doing this more in some circles, very out about GQ but downplaying what’s in my pants etc #transchat
quarridors @queerscholar I don’t discuss my transsexual medical history or my birth assignment, barring that I consider them to be private. #transchat
quarridors @queerscholar As a nonbinary/genderqueer person I’m still able to enjoy the benefits of being openly trans* and in the community. #transchat
whateversusan Passing, stealth, out, these are words that don’t really adapt well to nonbinary and nontraditional experiences #transchat
Some of us also expressed difficulties being “out,” even when we want to be, while others find it easier:
whateversusan @queerscholar Right, exactly. If I want to be out as gay, I kiss my wife in public. But as trans? What do I do? Drop my voice? #transchat
SmartAssJen Since I’m just starting transition & am gendered as male by others, I claim trans status to explain variant gender markers. #transchat
whateversusan @SmartAssJen I’m on the other side, I transitioned and am always gendered female. Hard to know how to be out as trans*. #transchat
quarridors #transchat I am pretty comfortably androgynous, I get a mixture of readings, people changing their mind on my gender mid-conversation etc…
melballoons @queerscholar Well, I’m seen as female b/c femme (and politically so) and I don’t want to give that up to be seen. It’s difficult #transchat
queerscholar I really WANT people to perceive my femme-ness as transgressive, but they miss the queerness of it. #transchat
whateversusan @queerscholar I am slowly starting to be more butch again now that I’m less twitchy about things! TransW butch = transgressive #transchat
quarridors #transchat I feel the most comfortable with my gender presentation when I’m widely out as transgender, rather than when I let people assume.
quarridors #transchat But as a nonbinary person I can do that without explicitly disclosing what my birth assignment or medical history were…
quarridors #transchat So I can be ‘stealth’ while also ‘out’, does that show those are totally separate things or am I a special case confusing things?
queerpup As a pretty binary FtM that “passes”, I still feel a need to be out - acknowledging my upbringing & female socialisation. #transchat
AutistLiam @queerscholar @quarridors I am lucky enough to have spaces and people who can see me as male and as trans at the same time #transchat
melballoons I do think that being “out” may bring unwanted attention to assigned gender. Could be triggering and cause dysphoria. Be mindful. #transchat
Unfortunately, policing of gender is common in the trans community, not just in the wider world:
AutumnSandeen #transchat I’ve been cyberharassed by two “women of operative history” this year for being out identified as #transgender & #transsexual.
quarridors #transchat I think that queer/trans* communities are surprisingly prone to assuming things about genderqueer people’s bodies and histories
janetmock @autumnsandeen The policing of one another’s self-identification is a disease in our community. #transchat
janetmock I’ve been criticized for using transgender/transsexual in my own identification, when in fact I grew up mahuwahine in Hawaii. #transchat
quarridors #transchat I also know people who the system & parts of the community call ‘detransitioners’ who still ID as trans* or continue to take HRT.
melballoons @auntysarah I work in a queer space where I constantly have to remind and am constantly misgendered. It’s triggers dysphoria. #transchat
And that’s just some of what we discussed during this week’s #transchat! Check out the#transchat hashtag if you’d like to see some of the other topics that came up, including self-care and activism, trans art, and when to ask for preferred pronouns. And join us Sunday, December 11 from 2-4 pm EST for the next #transchat on Twitter. We’ll be discussion trans* sexuality, and possibly other topics as well—if you have topic suggestions, you can shoot them to me here or @queerscholar. Also let me know if the time doesn’t work out, as we’re still ironing out practicalities.
Survey of nonbinary trans* people's pronoun preferences - Ends soon! »
Signal boosting, and looking forward to reading the results:
The survey’s been open for just about six months now, and responses have trickled to just about none, so I will close it a little earlier than the previously planned 31 December. Currently there are about 475 responses! But in case any interested nonbinary trans folks just haven’t seen it yet, I’m making this announcement, and will close the survey this coming Monday the 21st at 11 PM EST.
If you identify as trans* and nonbinary, I’d love to see your input!
Recommended reading: This is how "gender is all/only performance" is harmful »
Recommended reading: a life lived in fragments talks about the difference between gender identification and expression, and how the conflation of identity and behaviour is harmful:
[Trigger warning for cissexism, gender binarism and policing]
when you question how I can be both femme and agender, or tell me that being assigned female at birth and femme just means that I’m a woman, what you’re really saying is that there is a specific way one must perform a non-binary gender identity.
and this has little to do with how the individual feels and relates to their gender, and everything to do with how they are perceived.
THERE IS NO ONE WAY TO BE AGENDER.
if a cis man who is read as male were to wear lipstick, you’d say he was being subversive. he’s going against expectations. he’s “breaking out” of his gender role. but when a trans man is femme, you think that’s different (especially,especially if he isn’t perceived to be male). because your ideas about gender are narrowly defined. cis people are allowed (to an extent) to play with gender and express themselves, while binary trans people are expected to conform to rigid conceptions of male or female. and non-binary people don’t even factor into this equation.
so when you first start to learn about non-binary people, you may think a non-binary gender must fall in between “male” and “female” on some sort of scale. and that if a person is non-binary but perceived to be female, they need to butch it up; while if they are perceived as male, they need to be more effeminate. the overall goal of a non-binary person being: to fall in the middle. you think that’s what it feels like to be non-binary; to be in between. (hint: gender isn’t a scale)
you think because I identify as not having a gender, that somehow I must present in a way that will result in me not being gendered (impossible). you think that my goal should be to confuse people who will try to gender me based on my appearance, by not conforming to expectations for women since I was assigned to be one and am continually assigned female every day.
my femme identity means often meeting others’ expectations of how I will look and act, because I am perceived to be a woman. to you, this means I’m not authentically non-binary. but to me, the way that I present myself is the way that I feel comfortable. it is unrelated to what others expect of me. only when I started to let go of where I fit into the binary gender system did I start to make sense of myself; I don’t fit into it. but in a cissexist culture, the gender I am assigned every day is defined by how I exist in relation to that system. in other words: what looks “androgynous” is defined by the binary gender system.
my goal when I get dressed every day as an agender person is not to avoid being gendered when I am out in the world. the validity of my gender identity does not rest upon the ability of others to correctly assign my gender. my gender expression does not determine my gender identity.
there is more than one way to challenge the oppressive gender dichotomy. if the way I describe my gender confuses you, then how can you tell me i’m not subverting anything?
Very well said!
I have observed a tendency in some circles to conflate androgynous appearance with nonbinary identity or to imply that those who are androgynous (or who take or once took hormones, or who have transgender surgery, or who use gender neutral pronouns) are ‘more successfully’ nonbinary than those who express their nonbinary gender in other ways.
We must resist any implication there is only one way to live outside the restrictive gender binary. We all have different comfort points, we are all individuals. We should not re-create the hierarchies of ‘success’ and ‘passing’ seen in other trans* communities. We should be united in the cause of gaining greater freedom to be our authentic selves, express our genders in whichever way is right for us, and celebrate the diversity of identities possible outside of the rigid binary.
Nobody ‘passes’, nobody fails, nobody left behind.
