Editing Genderqueer

| meaning = Lavender: mixture of pink (female) and blue (male); White: gender neutral or agender; Dark green: inverse of lavander, meaning the third gender

| related = [[Nonbinary]]

| umbrella = [[Transgender]]

| frequency = 35%

As an umbrella term, Genderqueer has a similar scope to [[nonbinary]], with many nonbinary-identifying individuals also considering themselves genderqueer. However, the terms have different historical scopes and connotations. The word genderqueer was used at least ten years before nonbinary.

 

A 1990 book titled "The Welcoming Congregation Handbook" defined "Gender Queer" as "A person whose understanding of her/hir/his gender identification transcends society's polarized gender system".<ref>{{cite book|title=The Welcoming Congregation Handbook |page=120 |publisher=Unitarian Universalist Association |date=1990 |last=Alexander |first=Scott W. |edition=2nd}}</ref>

 

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Another early usage of the term was by [[Riki Anne Wilchins]] in the Spring 1995 newsletter of [[Transexual Menace]]:

 

{{quote|...this is not just one more civil rights struggle for one more narrowly-defined minority. It's about all of us who are genderqueer: diesel [[dyke]]s and [[stone butch]]es, leatherqueens and radical fairies, nelly fags, [[Crossdressing|crossdressers]], [[intersex]]ed, [[transsexual]]s, [[transvestite]]s, [[transgender]]ed, transgressively gendered, and those of us whose gender expressions are so complex they haven’t even been named yet.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Answering Gender Questions: Coining Genderqueer, Queer Fluidity, Gender-Normative |author= |work=GENDERQUEER AND NON-BINARY IDENTITIES |date=11 August 2011 |access-date=24 January 2022 |url= https://genderqueerid.com/post/8813994851/answering-gender-questions-coining-genderqueer|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230525021313/https://genderqueerid.com/post/8813994851/answering-gender-questions-coining-genderqueer |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref>}}

[http://www.myhusbandbetty.com/2003/10/19/riki-wilchins-on-the-tg-spectrum/ Riki Wilchins' essay] from the 2002 anthology ''[[Books|GenderQueer]]'' describes how the original 'Gender Queers' adopted the label because the intended-to-be-inclusive umbrella term [[transgender]] had begun to be most strongly associated with [[transsexual]], [[gender binary]] identified and medically [[transition]]ing people, pushing out those who did not fit this dominant [[transgender narrative]].

Genderqueer comes with the anti-assimilationist political connotations of [[queer]], a reclaimed slur word that has strong associations within and without the LGBT community as well as a countercultural sexuality movement that sets itself apart from the mainstream [[LGBT]] community. (Note that the word "queer" is still actively used as a pejorative and hate speech in many regions.) As such genderqueer implies a similar counterculture, setting itself apart from mainstream nonbinary and [[transgender]] discourse. Many genderqueer people also consider themselves to be queer and there is a strong trend of rejecting the gender binary and normative [[gender roles]] with in the Queer Movement as a whole.

By contrast, nonbinary is more politically neutral in its connotations. Nonbinary was coined as a descriptive term, originally simply 'nonbinary gender', used to describe the range of experiences that fall outside of the binary gender model. There is no countercultural discourse connotation, nor is there a connotation of association with the wider Queer Movement. Nonbinary is intended to simply cover the widest range of identities and experiences without intending to describe their political or cultural philosophies and affiliations.

Genderqueer-identified people seem to be more likely to hold [[binary gender]] identities (eg, 'Genderqueer Woman') while considering their [[gender expression]] or [[gender performance]] to be queer or non-normative, while nonbinary-identified people are more likely to consider their [[gender identity]] (or lack of gender identity) to fall outside of the binary.{{citation needed}} Genderqueer-identified people seem to be more likely to consider themselves to be queer or a member of the queer community.

Some nonbinary people reject the term genderqueer as an umbrella term because they are offended to be associated with queer sexuality, or still see queer as an offensive word.

Despite these trends and connotations, both terms are used by some members of each group and so may be considered as wide inclusive umbrella terms. Some genderqueer-identified people have sought 'transition', some nonbinary-identified people hold binary gender identities and consider themselves to be nonbinary by gender expression, and it is currently common for nonbinary-identified individuals to also identify as genderqueer (especially as this term predates nonbinary by at least a decade).{{citation needed}}

There is controversy within the genderqueer community over whether genderqueer people fall under the [[transgender]] umbrella. Despite the work of [[Leslie Feinberg]] in the 1990s to coin transgender as a wide and inclusive umbrella term covering all forms of ''transgressive gender'', the term genderqueer developed out of a frustration with the association between transgender and [[Transsexual|transsexualism]], [[gender dysphoria]] and the dominant [[transgender narrative]].{{citation needed}}

It is common for genderqueer-identified people to consider trans and [[transgender]] to be synonymous with [[transition]] and so to claim genderqueer as a non-transgender identity. This is especially true with people who are genderqueer by gender expression only, but also applies to some genderqueer people who are comfortable with their body and see transgender as synonymous with bodily gender dysphoria.{{citation needed}}

Some notable people who specifically describe themselves with the label "genderqueer" include:  

* musician [[JD Samson]]

* model [[Rain Dove]]  

* drag performer [[Violet Chachki]]

* internet personality [[Jeffrey Marsh]]

 

For more, see this wiki's [[:Category:Genderqueer people|genderqueer people category]].