The article also challenges the commonly presented view that androgyny is the only way to present a nonbinary gender.

nonbinary:

Excellent and highly recommended response to the flawed NY Mag Agender article from The Frisky:

It’s a common assumption that non-binary people were all assumed female at birth, i.e. born with the body parts we typically associate with girls. With the exception of Pejic, who doesn’t have a pronoun preference and has de-emphasized the importance of gender in interviews, there are few visible examples of assumed-male-at-birth non-binary people. Kopas explained how this narrow POV can harm assumed-male-at-birth people and others who fall outside the typical presentation:

It seems that we’ve started treating the most visible examples of non-binary people as if they represented the full range of ways of being. […] Who does this leave out? People of color, fat people, male-assigned people… As a male-assigned non-binary person, it’s sometimes felt like a struggle for me to have that part of my identity recognized even by other gender-variant folks. People want to place me as either as a man because of my physical features, or a woman because of how I dress or because I’m on [hormone replacement therapy]. But there’s no non-binary uniform or medical regimen — nothing says that someone can’t dress femme and still identify outside of a gender binary. So if non-binary is to mean more than a particular kind of androgynous expression, then we need to talk about the range of ways that it can look and feel.

In short? “Agender” may sound like a tidy little label — but that would be an underestimation of every agender person that you meet.

Read the full article at The Frisky

nonbinary:

Signal boosting. Are you nonbinary and live in Glasgow, Scotland?

becomingkeltik:

I’m being interviewed for a study on being trans in Glasgow, the person conducting the study is looking for 2 more people, age ranges early 20s and 50+, non binary identities please! This is her explanation of the study;

“My research is looking into the lived experiences of four transsexuals in Glasgow. I recently interviewed a transwoman who had made Glasgow her new home for another piece of research and arising from this interview I wanted to explore this area more. I really want to get a sense of how transsexuals have created and continue to manage their new identity and overcome the many barriers that society places. The reason I have chosen Glasgow is that it still tends to have a tough image with strong sectarianism in football and a working man’s image of work hard play hard so it can be considered unforgiving with anything and anyone that is considered against the”norm” so to speak. Whether the people I interview are transmen or transwomen I want to explore if Glasgow and Scotland’s culture and history has helped or hindered their transition. I don’t have an end goal in mind I just believe and hope that the more information that is out there about such matters can help educate and hopefully reduce discrimination.”

If you want to get involved, you can contact Fiona at - 1103350K@student.gla.ac.uk

Please share! Thanks.

(Source: becomingkeltik)

fuckyeahftmsofcolor:

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?

Signal boosting this request for examples of nonbinary gender outside of the transgender and genderqueer communities:

nonbinary:

As part of a nonbinary gender visibility project, I’m attempting to track down people who identify and/or express gender outside of the binary (as in something other than woman or man) despite not being involved in mainstream trans* communities.

I’m mainly active in transgender, transsexual and genderqueer communities and, as you’d expect, I know of many nonbinary people through those. These are communities that are primarily about gender transgression (of various kinds) where nonbinary experience is directly on topic.

I’m also active in various queer and (a)sexuality-based communities, most notably the asexual and bi communities and have found those to be supportive of nonbinary identity and expression, and so good places to meet others who don’t fit binary classifications. These are communities that are about sexuality that defies the hetero/homo binary and so tend to be either extremely openminded to nonbinary gender or see it as an overlapping issue. (The pansexual community would obviously fall here too).

And I feel at home and accepted as a nonbinary person at (most) literary science fiction conventions I attend (and other cons with similar feels). There (trans)gender isn’t (usually) the topic of discussion, but members of the community are generally openminded to new ideas and other ways of being, and of course there’s no shortage of science fiction that plays with gender or imagines different models of sex and gender. So this can be seen as part of a third category of community that isn’t about or related to gender transgression, but is open minded and accepting of those expressing a nonbinary gender.

Those are my experiences. What I’m now interested in doing is assembling a list of other communities where people express and find acceptance of their nonbinary genders, preferably those that are not directly related to ‘mainstream’ transgender, genderqueer and transsexual communities.

Based on my research and feedback from others, I’ve assembled the following list of communities that are (or may be) directly related to, or supportive of, nonbinary gender (which again, I’m defining as identifying or living as something other than a woman or a man):

• Intersex support groups and activist organisations
• Transvestite and crossdresser communities (those not following mainstream transgender narratives of gender identity and dysphoria)
• Butch/Femme
• Radical faeries
• The eunuch and castration communities
• Extreme body modification
• Kink and fetish communities
• Drag and cabaret performer communities
• Artist communities, particularly performance art (Burning Man?)
• Empowered multiplicity/plurality/median/mid-continuum
• Otherkin
• Female bodybuilders (perhaps? Cited as gender transgressive in Feinberg’s Trans Liberation)
• Goth and similar subcultures (Twitter suggestion)
• Certain parts of the pagan community (Twitter suggestion)

(And I should stress, I’m not saying everyone within these communities is nonbinary, any more than I’m suggesting everyone within the trans* community is, just that they may well be home to some people who see themselves as something other than women or men).

Can anyone reading point me towards nonbinary individuals from those communities, or to articles written (or documentaries filmed!) about nonbinary gender within them?

Or can anyone suggest any other communities/subcultures that haven’t been suggested yet that are home to or accepting of people who identify or live as something other than male or female?

I’ve created a page on the nonbinary.org wiki for further examples and supporting information to be recorded. Please comment here or make edits there to add your suggestions and examples:

Nonbinary gender outside of the transgender community

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* 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.

nonbinary:

New year, new web presence! Nonbinary.org now hosts a nonbinary gender community wiki with forums coming soon!

Get involved by expanding stub articles or creating wanted pages.

nonbinary:

Earlier today, CN Lester posted an articulate and well considered constructive critique of the umbrella term ‘Nonbinary’ now commonly used within many genderqueer, gender variant and gender nonconforming communities.

The following response is adapted from the Twitter conversation I had with CN in response:

Despite having just announced a ‘Nonbinary’ visibility, education and advocacy network, I strongly agree with much of your critiques of the word.

I think it’s really important that we have these conversations about the language we use. I believe that any single word is going to be flawed and likely to exclude some by implication (just look at all the debates around the words ‘trans’ and ‘transgender’), so it’s important that we work to ensure the definitions and explanations in our resources and visibility work recognise and minimise these shortcomings.

I’m currently working on a Nonbinary FAQ and I’m aiming for it to address everything you’ve covered here. I’ve already had a couple of lengthy and heated discussions about this with some other activists and will be incorporating their perspectives and criticisms too.

And I say all this as one of the architects of the modern positive Asexual movement and author of the original asexuality.org FAQ. I hope I can use what I learned through helping to build a positive, inclusive community around a ‘negative’ word (asexual is defined by a lack of sexual orientation after all) to ensure that ‘Nonbinary’ does not become exclusionary or elitist.

Part of this effort in forming a community around this commonly used umbrella term is to bring people together under their common experiences rather separate under many individual identities. And that’s coming from someone who has been deeply frustrated by having to choose if I was ‘androgyne’ or ‘neutrois’ on community sites in the past (and ultimately joining and contributing to both, wishing I could bring their resources and communities together).

Please see the following for an example of my commitment to inclusivity and recognition of all identities and experiences under community umbrella terms:

Practical Androgyny: How transgender organisations can demonstrate inclusivity

The nonbinary visibility campaign planned will put just as much effort into increasing awareness of all the diverse identities under the umbrella as the umbrella term itself. We all gain from more people understanding identities like bigender, fluid gender, genderqueer, neutrois etc, and everyone gains from the freedom to define their gender identity (or lack of it) and gender expression in whichever way they wish.

I hope this has addressed some of your very justified and valid concerns, and thanks again for starting this conversation and giving valuable critique!

Announcing a new sibling site coming soon, please spread the word, case studies needed!

nonbinary:

Announcing a new international Nonbinary gender visibility, education and advocacy network coming soon, arguing for equal access to employment, services and medical treatment for those who don’t fit the gender binary.

Please follow us if you’re nonbinary, genderqueer or gender nonconforming and want greater public understanding and equal access to employment, services and medical treatment. Allies welcome too!

We’re looking for case studies. Have you sought access to transgender medical care while openly nonbinary, genderqueer or gender nonconforming? Please get in contact.

Please follow Nonbinary