Non-Binary in Society

Binary breakdown

As more people realize gender is not finalized at birth, there is still learning to do

Katrell Readus readukat000@hsestudents.org

1.2 million people in the US are nonbinary

53% of nonbinary people report being bullied

11% of nonbinary adults were exposed to conversion therapy as children

82% of the communities adults faced emotional abuse as children

39% have of nonbinary people attempted suicide

94% of nonbinary adults have considered suicide

The thought of individuals not confining themselves within the boundaries of conventional gender or not identifying with the gender they were assigned at birth is often regarded as a new, modern-day idea or concept. However, breaking the concept of gender by a lack of conformity and identification has been around for as long as civilization has. Nonbinary identification has been recorded as far back as 400 B.C.E to 200 C.E., when Hijras, people in India who identified as beyond male or female, were cited in ancient text. From the Hijras in India and the māhūs in Hawaii to the two-spirit people in indigenous cultures, there have always been people who do not feel they fit or do not want to fit the stereotype of what it means to be male or female. These examples of gender nonconformity throughout world history laid a foundation for how we understand gender identity today, proving that gender is a spectrum and not set in stone the moment the sex of a child is proclaimed. This foundation was further built upon in the late 1960s and into the 1970s when LGBTQ+ social movements and icons such as activist duo Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera arose. The pair rose to prominence after the events that took place after a police raid of the Stonewall Inn in 1969. On June 28 of that year, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a bar located in New York City’s Greenwich Village that served as a retreat for the city’s LGBTQ+ community. At the time, homosexual acts were illegal in every state except Illinois, and bars and restaurants could be shut down for having gay employees or serving gay patrons. Despite this, many gay bars and clubs in New York including the Stonewall remained in operation under the radar of authorities. Police raids on gay bars were common, but on that particular night, members of the city’s LGBTQ+ community decided to fight back, sparking days of protest that would launch a new era of resistance and revolution. By the 1900s and continuing on into the era of the Stonewall riots and the Gay Liberation Movement, homosexual men, particularly, became an increased target for this legislation. This began when states start to add oral sex to their anti-sodomy laws. These antiLGBTQ+ laws prompted police and vigilante groups to go out in search of gay men engaging in sexual activity to arrest or physically assault them. This legislation came into play in a culture already increasingly hostile to LGBTQ+ people. Anti-sodomy codes also fueled raids on gay bars like that which sparked the Stonewall Riots in 1969. This is when Johnson and Rivera rise up as leaders in the Gay Liberation Movement. They co-founded the group STAR, Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, offering housing to homeless and transgender youth. The pair recognized that many transgender people turned to sex work after being turned away by their families, and faced additional struggles and dangers through being unsheltered. Johnson and Rivera opened the first LGBTQ+ youth shelter in North America and became the first Trans women of color to lead an organization in the United States. However, the work of this team was cut short by Marsha’s death in 1992, a death ruled by a medical examiner to be a suicide, but believed by family and friends to be a murder. A decade later, Sylvia met an untimely death due to cancer. Unfortunately, in today’s society, the idea that people are breaking down the boxes of traditional gender is still foreign to some despite the work of previous generations. This uninformedness and bigotry all too often are the catalyst for fatal acts of hate. In 2020, Human Rights Campaign, an organization focused on the fight for equality across all communities, tracked a record number of violent and ultimately fatal incidents against transgender and gender nonconforming people; A total of 44 fatalities were tracked, marking 2020 as the most violent year on record since crimes of this nature began being tracked in 2013. Sadly, 2021 has been no better. According to the HRC, at least 40 transgender or gender non-conforming people, ranging in age from 16 to 49, have been killed already this year. While the details of the cases seen this year differ from one another, and affect trans and nonbinary people of all races and ethnicities, it has become evident that this type of violence is disproportionately affecting transgender women of color, specifically Black transgender women. The crossover of racism, sexism and transphobia is becoming more and more apparent as the number of cases like these rises. Crimes like these have increased danger and hate coming toward these

Police raid the Stonewall Inn in New York City, leading to four days of struggle between police and the LGBTQ community. Marsha “Pay It No Mind” Johnson and Sylvia Rivera co-found Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries (STAR) The board of the American Psychiatric Association votes 13-0 to remove homosexuality from its official list of psychiatric disorders

Tammy Baldwin becomes the first openly lesbian candidate ever elected to Congress

1969 1970 1973

1998

communities, causing more than physical problems and injuries. These things are contributing to the decline and deterioration of mental health in LGBTQ people everywhere, particularly in youths. During a 2019 investigation by the Trevor Project, the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention nonprofit organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning young people, it was estimated that more than 1.8 million young people who identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community between the ages of 13 and 24 in the U.S. seriously consider suicide each year. These numbers demonstrate how detrimental it is for our society to remain unaware and/or hateful of the LGBTQ+ community. The lack of support from society as well as family and friends for some has caused children and adults all around the world to see death as their only option. Validation is a human desire, and when that is taken away, it is easy for selfinvalidation to grow with thoughts like “If they all hate me, why shouldn’t I hate myself?” Unsupported people are at risk, simply because who they truly are is different from what our cisgender heterosexual centralized society deems and promotes as the norm. There are many ways to be inclusive of gender identity. Our language and the way we speak are often embedded with gendered cues, and noticing these can be a good first step. Another thing that those looking to become allies could do is let people know what their pronouns are even if they are cisgender, meaning they identify with the gender assigned to them at birth. This communicates that being nonbinary doesn’t require androgyny and being trans doesn’t require a person to completely match the stereotypical look of the gender they are transitioning to. The freedom of gender nonconformity can look different for each person’s pronouns. Though it is common for nonbinary people to use they/them pronouns, that is not always the case. During an interaction with someone who lets you know they identify as nonbinary, ask questions like what pronouns they use rather than assuming. Depending on their response, ask if they would be willing to provide an example of how they would like their pronouns to be used in a sentence. For instance, someone’s pronouns could be she/they, they/she, he/they or they/he. Those four combinations may look and sound similar, but they can require different uses in a sentence depending on the individual. In some cases, the order can imply preference, in some the person would like them used interchangeably throughout a conversation and in others, the person might say they do not care or have a preference for which term is used at what time. There are many other combinations, forms and types of pronouns. Neopronouns are a newer example of this, neopronouns are a category of pronouns that can be used in place of “she,” “he” or “they” when referring to someone. Some examples include xe/xem/xyr, ze/hir/hirs and ey/em/ eir. Another newer example of pronouns are it/its. There are several things you can do, but the most important one is to ask the people in the community you are trying to help what they need from you. It is easy to be blinded by your yearning to help, so much so that the voices that matter, the voices of the community you are trying to help, are drowned out by people that call themselves allies. This can occur innocently with no malcontent, nevertheless, it could be detrimental to the fight for change.

Information for timeline from GLSEN. Statistics from UCLA law school. Graphic by Katrell Readus.

2002

NYC expands the definition of “gender” to include protections for transgender and gender nonconforming people

2003

The U.S. Supreme Court overturns sodomy laws, giving rights to privacy and decriminalizing “homosexual” behavior.

2015

The Supreme Court rules that states are required to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.