Non-binary gender

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Genderqueer (GQ; alternatively non-binary) is a catch-all category for gender identities other than man and woman, thus outside of the gender binary and cisnormativity.^[1] Genderqueer people may identify as one or more of the following:

• having an overlap of, or indefinite lines between, gender identity.^[2]
• two or more genders (bigender, trigender, pangender);
• without a gender (nongendered, genderless, agender; neutrois);
• moving between genders or with a fluctuating gender identity (genderfluid);^[3]
• third gender or other-gendered; includes those who do not place a name to their gender;^[4]

Some genderqueer people^[5][6] also desire physical modification or hormones to suit their preferred expression. Many genderqueer people see gender and sex as separable aspects of a person and sometimes identify as a male woman, a female man, or they may combine genderqueer with another gender option.^[7] It can be helpful for some people to consider gender and sex as two separate things.^[8] Gender can include, but are in no way limited to, boy/girl, man/woman, bigender, agender, non-binary, et cetera. Gender identity is defined as one's internal sense of being a woman, man, both, or neither, while sexual orientation refers to an individual's enduring physical, romantic, and/or emotional attraction to others.^[6] As such, genderqueer people may have a variety of sexual orientations, as with transgender and cisgender people.^[9]

In addition to being an umbrella term, genderqueer has been used as an adjective to refer to any people who transgress distinctions of gender, regardless of their self-defined gender identity, i.e. those who "queer" gender, expressing it non-normatively.^[10] Androgynous is frequently used as a descriptive term for people in this category, though genderqueer people may express a combination of masculinity and femininity, or neither, in their gender expression and not all identify as androgynous. However, the term has been applied by those describing what they see as a gender ambiguity.^[11]

Genderqueer was one of 56 gender identity options added to Facebook in February 2014.^[12]

Some genderqueer people prefer to use gender-neutral pronouns such as one, ze, sie, hir, co, ey or singular "they", "their" and "them", while others prefer the conventional binary pronouns "her" or "him". Some genderqueer people prefer to be referred to alternately as he and she, and some prefer to use only their name and not use pronouns at all.^[13]

Many genderqueer people prefer additional neutral language, such as the title "Mx" instead of Mr. or Ms.^[14]

In July 2012, Gopi Shankar, a gender activist and a student at The American College in Madurai coined the regional terms for genderqueer (Template:Lang-ta) people in Tamil during Asia's first genderqueer Pride Parade. According to Shankar, Tamil is the only language besides English that has been given names for all the genders identified so far.^{[15][16][17][18][19][20]}

Agender (from 'a-', meaning "without", "a lack of", and 'gender') (also genderless, non-gendered, ungendered^[21][22]) is a person who identifies as 'having no gender' or 'without gender identity'.^[23] It may fall under the genderqueer or transgender^[24][25][26] (lit. being "beyond gender") umbrella. It is related to, and may overlap with the gender identity of neutrois, defined as either a neutral or neither gender, or sometimes no gender.^[27]

Neutrois is a gender identity that is neutral or null. Neutrois people may also describe themselves variously as genderless, neither male nor female, or androgynous, or possibly agender,^[27] the lack of a gender, a term with which there is a degree of overlap, although neutrois tends to cover a neutral gender identity, whereas agender tends to cover the lack of a gender.^{[original research?][citation needed]}

Neutrois people may receive any sex assignment at birth. Many have gender dysphoria, much like transsexual people. The term "neutrois" was coined in 1995 by H. A. Burnham, who created the word to describe Burnham's gender and others with the same feelings.^[28][29]

People self-identifying as neutrois are part of what gender theorist Anne Enke calls the "ever-expanding social category" of transgender people. This category includes a very broad range of identities which do not conform to traditional gender norms. However, Enke notes that people who identify with any of these positions may not necessarily self-identify as transgender.^[30]

Neutrois and agender, are two of 50 available "custom" genders on Facebook, which were added on February 13, 2014.^[31] It is also available as a gender option on OkCupid since 17 November 2014.^[32]

X-gender or X-sex is a third gender or genderqueer identity, including in Japan, where it is known as Xジェンダー.

Gender neutrality is the movement to end discrimination of gender altogether in society through means of gender-neutral language, the end of sex segregation and other means.

Designed by Marilyn Roxie and completed in 2011, the genderqueer and non-binary pride flag composes of three horizontal stripes and is designed to complement existing gender and sexuality flags.

Lavender stands as a mixture of blue and pink, traditionally associated with men and women, and so represents androgyny as well as 'queerness', as it has long-standing connections to non-heterosexual communities.^[33] White stands for agender, reflecting the use of white on the transgender flag for 'gender neutral', and dark chartreuse green stands as the inverse of lavender, representing all whose identity is outside or without connection to the gender binary.^[34]

In 2013, Roxie clarified that the similarity shared between the colours of the pride flag and those of the Women's Social and Political Union, a United Kingdom suffrage organisation, was unintentional.^[35]

• Angel Haze, American rapper, identifes as agender. Their preferred personal pronoun is singular they and they came out as genderqueer in February 2015^[36]
• Justin Vivian Bond, American entertainer, identifies as neither male or female, but trans. Bond prefers the title "Mx" and the pronoun "V".^[37]
• Andrea Gibson, American poet and activist. Also goes by Andrew. Their preferred personal pronoun is singular they and they have written many poems about gender identity, such as "Swing set" and "Andrew".^[38]
• Jiz Lee, a pornographic performer, stated in a personal blog post to have become more candid about being genderqueer at about age 29.^{[39][non-primary source needed]}
• Richard O'Brien, a British actor and filmmaker who lives in New Zealand, identifies as third gender and takes estrogen.^[40]
• Chris Pureka, an American folk music singer-songwriter, came out publicly as genderqueer in a 2005 interview with Off Our Backs.^[41]
• Ruby Rose, Australian model and DJ, came out as gender-fluid in 2014. She identifies as both male and female and prefers female pronouns.^[42]
• Gopi Shankar, a gender activist and a student of The American College in Madurai.^[43][44] Shankar wrote the first book on gender-variant people in Tamil^[45] and ze is the founder of Srishti Madurai genderqueer group.^{[15][18][46][47][48]}
• Rae Spoon, a Canadian singer-songwriter, identified as a trans man for many years before adopting a gender-neutral identity in 2012.^[49][50][51]
• Hida Viloria, American writer and intersex activist, speaks about being genderqueer in the 1999 film Gendernauts. As the New York Times film review stated, "Hida Viloria, a voluble hermaphrodite with exquisite cheekbones, can pass effortlessly from exquisite femininity to sullen machismo. Having lived credibly as a woman and as a man, Hida... now seems happiest occupying 'the middle ground' between them."^[52]

The majority of respondents to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey chose "A gender not listed here." The Q3GNLH (Question 3 Gender Not Listed Here) respondents reported being 9 percentage-points (33%) more likely to forgo healthcare due to fear of discrimination than the general sample (36% compared to 27%). 90% reported experiencing anti-trans bias at work and 43% reported having attempted suicide.^[53]

First reported in January 2003, Australians can use "X" as their gender. Alex MacFarlane is believed to be the first person in Australia to obtain a chosen birth certificate recording sex as indeterminate, and the first Australian passport with an 'X' sex marker in 2003.^{[54][55][56][56][57][58]} This is stated by the West Australian to be on the basis of a challenge by MacFarlane, using an indeterminate birth certificate issued by the State of Victoria. The West Australian newspaper reported in January 2003 that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade "had decided to accommodate people whose birth certificates recorded their sex as indeterminate ... Alex is also believed to be the first Australian issued with a birth certificate acknowledging a gender other than male or female."^[54]

Government policy between 2003 and 2011 was to issue passports with an 'X' marker only to people who could "present a birth certificate that notes their sex as indeterminate".^[58][59]

In 2011, the Australian Passport Office introduced new guidelines for issuing of passports with a new gender, and broadened availability of an X descriptor to all individuals with documented "indeterminate" sex.^[60][61] The revised policy stated that "sex reassignment surgery is not a prerequisite to issue a passport in a new gender. Birth or citizenship certificates do not need to be amended."^[62]

Australian Commonwealth guidelines on the recognition of sex and gender, published in June 2013, now extend the use of an 'X' gender marker to any adult who chooses that option, in all dealings with the Commonwealth government and its agencies. The option is being introduced over a three year period. The guidelines also clarify that the federal government collects data on gender, rather than sex.^[63]

Also in 2013, people with non-binary gender identities received formal protection from discrimination, with the addition of a new attribute "gender identity" to anti-discrimination law.^[64][65]

Norrie May-Welby is popularly - but erroneously - often regarded as the first person in the world to obtain officially indeterminate, unspecified or "genderless" status.^[31][66][67] May-Welby became the first transsexual person in Australia to pursue a legal status of neither a man nor a woman, in 2010.^{[31][66][68][69]} In April 2014, Norrie May-Welby was found by the Australian High Court to have "non-specific sex" following surgery that "did not resolve her[sic] sexual ambiguity".^[70]

• Bernstein Sycamore, Mattilda, ed. (2006). Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity. Emeryville: Seal Press. ISBN 9781580051842. OCLC 50389309.
• Bornstein, Kate; Bergman, S. Bear, eds. (2010). Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation (Reprint ed.). Berkeley: Seal Press. ISBN 9781580053082. OCLC 837948378. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |editorlink= ignored (|editor-link= suggested) (help)
• Fine, Cordelia (2011). Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference (Reprint ed.). New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 9780393340242. OCLC 449865367.
• Hines, Melissa (2005). Brain Gender. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195188363. OCLC 846105995.
• Nestle, Joan; Howell, Clare; Wilchins, Riki Anne, eds. (2002). GenderQueer: Voices from Beyond the Sexual Binary. Los Angeles: Alyson Books. ISBN 9781555837303. OCLC 50389309. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |editorlink= ignored (|editor-link= suggested) (help)
• Peterson, Tim Trace; Tolbert, T. C., eds. (2013). Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics. Callicoon: Nightboat Books. ISBN 9781937658106. OCLC 839307399.
• Scout, Ph.D. (23 July 2013). "(A) Male, (B) Female, (C) Both, (D) Neither". The Huffington Post. AOL. Retrieved 2 August 2013.
• Stryker, Susan; Whittle, Stephen, eds. (2006). The Transgender Studies Reader. New York: Routledge. ISBN 9781580051842. OCLC 50389309.