List of nonbinary identities

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This alphabetical list of some of the more common nonbinary identities lists many gender identities that are nonbinary. That is, those other than just female and male identities, which are the binary genders. This list gives names for nonbinary identities in English-speaking cultures, as well as those that are part of other cultures. (For the latter, please never use a word for your gender that belongs only to a culture or ethnic group that is not yours.) Some of these words for nonbinary identities have been used in writing for thousands of years. Meanwhile, some of these words were created more recently. This page lists fewer of the older gender-variant identities than the new ones, because it can be harder to say whether it's accurate to put those in the category of "nonbinary." See also List of uncommon nonbinary identities.

A

Shown here live at Øyafestivalen 2013, Raeen Roes, better known by their stage name Angel Haze, is a well known agender rapper, as they announced via twitter in February 2015.
  • agender. Some who call themselves agender have no gender identity (genderless). Others who call themselves agender have a gender identity, which isn't female or male, but neutral.[1] In the 2019 Worldwide Gender Census, 2,723 of the 11,242 respondents (24.22%) were agender.[2] Notable agender people include rapper Angel Haze,[3] [4] astrophysicist Amita Kuttner,[5] model Juno Mitchell,[6] and poet Bogi Takács.[7]
  • androgyne. This ancient word means man-woman. It is used for a wide variety of gender nonconforming and nonbinary identities and gender expressions,[1] and has been used as an umbrella term for them. Androgyne can mean intersex, but not all androgynes are intersex.[8] Victorian and Edwardian era people who called themselves androgynes believed their gender-nonconforming natures originated in hidden intersex characteristics in their brain or body. This was the view of a notable androgyne, autobiographer Jennie June (b. 1874).[9] In the 2019 Worldwide Gender Census, 9.38% (1054 people) of the respondents called themselves androgynes.[2]

B

  • bigender, or bi-gender.[1] A bigender person feels they have two gender identities,[10] at the same time, or at different times.[11] A bigender person may move between their gender expressions based on their situation or their feelings.[10] These two genders might be female and male, or they might be a different pair of genders. Bigender was in use before 1997.[12] In the 2019 Worldwide Gender Census, 3.72% (419) of the respondents were bigender.[2]
  • butch.[1] Butch is a queer masculine identity.[10] It originated in working-class lesbian bar culture in the 1940s and 50s.[13][14] Leslie Feinberg, who was a butch of the 1950s onward and a trans person,[15] defines butch as a category of gender identity, neither male nor female. From the mid-20th century, there has been a tradition of roles of queer butch-femme couples.[10] Butch-femme couples are not a rule, especially not after cultural changes in lesbian culture in the 1970s.[16] Butch-femme couples are not an imitation of heterosexuality.[17] Masculinity or butchness is neither the same as nor an imitation of manhood. As one trans man interviewed by sociologist Henry Rubin put it, the butch lesbian women he knew "were much more butch than me. But I was much more male than they were."[18] Though butch most often means a lesbian woman, not all are.[10] Queer theorist and butch Jack Halberstam defines its indefinability: "The butch is neither cis-gender nor simply transgender [...] Butch is always a misnomer-- not male, not female, masculine but not male, female but not feminine".[19] Butch is a diverse category. Some people choose to call themselves butch.[10] In the 2019 Worldwide Gender Census, 0.93% (105 people) of respondents called their identity butch, or some form of it, such as soft butch.[2] Notable people who call themselves butch as an identity outside the gender binary include writer Ivan E. Coyote,[20][21][22] comedian Kelli Dunham,[23] and social worker Sonalee Rashatwar.[24]

D

  • demiboy. A gender identity that expresses both male identity and agender identity, or both male and genderless.[25][1] In the 2019 Worldwide Gender Census, 7.42% (834) of the respondents said they were a demiboy, demiguy, demiman, or other form of this identity.[2]
  • demigender.[1] An umbrella term for nonbinary identities that have a partial connection to a certain gender. In the 2019 Worldwide Gender Census, 20.73% (2331) responses were demigender, demiboy, demigirl, deminonbinary, or other form of this identity.[2]
  • demigirl.[1] A gender identity that expresses both female identity and Agender identity, or both female and genderless.[26] In the 2019 Worldwide Gender Census, 7.98% (897) of the respondents said they were a demigirl, demiwoman, demifemale, or other form of this identity.[2]

E

  • enby.[1] Coined in 2013 by a nonbinary person under the Tumblr username vector (revolutionator), based on an initialism of "non-binary," "NB." A common noun for a person with a nonbinary identity. This is the nonbinary equivalent of the common nouns "boy" or "girl." Plural: enbies.[27] The word immediately caught on. In the 2019 Worldwide Gender Census, 32.1% (3609) of the respondents called themselves enbies.[2]

F

Fa'afafine banner at the Auckland pride parade in 2016.
  • fa'afafine. In Samoa, the Fa'afafine are people who were assigned male at birth, have a feminine gender expression, and don't think of themselves as female or male.[28]
  • femme.[1] Femme originated as a queer feminine identity in 1950s working-class lesbian bar culture.[13] Traditionally, femme was the counterpart of the butch role. Today, queer people who choose to call themselves femme do not necessarily seek a butch-femme relationship.[29] Femme does not simply mean a conventionally feminine woman, and is instead a culturally transgressive identity. Surveys show that a significant percentage of nonbinary and genderqueer people identify as femme.[1] In the 2019 Worldwide Gender Census, 1.35% of the respondents identified as some form of femme.[2] Some notable people who identify as femme outside the binary include author Kate Bornstein,[30] journalist Sassafras Lowrey,[31] disability rights activist Sharon daVanport,[32] and multimedia artist Dev Blair.[33]

G

Asia's first genderqueer pride parade in Madurai, 2012. The genderqueer flag can be seen here, with stripes of purple, white, and green.
  • genderfluid, or gender-fluid.[1] A gender identity that often changes, so that a person may feel one day like a boy, and another day like a girl. However, genderfluidity is not limited to being only male and female. Fluid gender. In the 2019 Worldwide Gender Census, 21.76% (2446) of the respondents were genderfluid, or otherwise called themselves fluid.[2]
  • genderflux.[1] A gender identity that often changes in intensity, so that a person may feel one day as though they have almost no gender, or none at all, and another day they feel very gendered.[34]
  • genderless.[1] Having no gender identity. Syn. agender.
  • gender neutral.[1] 1. That which has nothing to do with gender, or is inclusive of any gender. 2. Having no gender identity; agender. 3. Having a gender identity that is neutral: not female, not male, not a mix; compare neutrois.
  • genderqueer[1] is a non-normative gender identity or expression. This can be an umbrella term, or a specific identity.
  • gendervoid.[1] Coined by Baaphomett in 2014. "A gender consisting of the void (also/originally used to mean the same thing as genderless)."

H

A Pakistani hijra at a protest between two hijra groups from Islamabad and Rawalpindi. 2008.
  • hijra. In south Asian countries including India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, the Hijra are people who were assigned male at birth, who have a feminine gender expression. This is a very ancient tradition. Today, Hijra are legally recognized as a gender other than female or male.[35][36][37][38][39][40]

M

  • māhū. In Hawaii, in the Kanaka Maoli society, the māhū is a nonbinary role, made of people who may have been assigned either male or female at birth. This tradition existed before Western invaders, and survives today.[41]
  • maverique.[1] Coined by Vesper H. (queerascat) in 2014. A specific nonbinary gender identity "characterized by autonomy and inner conviction regarding a sense of self that is entirely independent of male/masculinity, female/femininity or anything which derives from the two while still being neither without gender nor of a neutral gender."[42]


N

Photograph taken during the Paris Gay Pride March in 2016. The banner is printed with the colors of the nonbinary flag. The big letters say "My gender is nonbinary," with dozens of names of specific nonbinary identities listed in smaller letters in the background.
  • neutrois.[1] Coined by a neutrois person named H. A. Burnham in 1995.[43] Having one non-binary gender identity that is neutral. Not female, not male, and not a mix. Some neutrois people are transsexual, experience gender dysphoria, and want to get a physical transition.[44]
  • nonbinary[1] is an umbrella term for all who don't identify as just female or male. Though there are innumarble kinds of nonbinary identities, some people identify as "nonbinary" only.
  • non-gendered. Having no gender. An identity popularized by non-gendered activist Christie Elan-Cane since at least 2000.[45]

P

  • polygender.[1] Having several gender identities, particularly four or more of them. This can mean at different times, or at the same time.[46]
  • pangender (from Greek πᾶν/pân "all, the whole"). A pangender person is a person who considers themselves as a member of all genders.[47]

Q

Pride marchers carrying a banner that says "Queer is hot, war is not." Twin Cities, 2013.
  • queer.[1] A reclaimed slur for the LGBT+ community, and an umbrella term for identities that are not heterosexual and/or not cisgender. Some people use this as the name for their nonbinary gender identity.[citation needed]

T

Two-spirited pride marchers at San Francisco Pride 2014.
  • transfeminine.[1] A transgender person who transitions in a feminine direction, but who doesn't necessarily identify as female. They may have a nonbinary identity.
  • transgender[1] is an umbrella term that refers to people whose identity differs from their assigned gender at birth. Some nonbinary people also use this word to talk about their identity.
  • transmasculine.[1] A transgender person who transitions in a masculine direction, but who doesn't necessarily identify as male. They may have a nonbinary identity.
  • Two-spirit. "Berdache" was an old word used by European-American anthropologists. It was an umbrella term for all traditional gender and sexual identities in hundreds of cultures throughout North and South America that were outside of Western ideas of gender and sex roles. In 1990, an Indigenous lesbian and gay international gathering chose to internationally replace "berdache" with "Two-Spirit" as a preferable umbrella term for these identities.[48][49] Two-Spirit should only be used in reference to people who are Native American.

X

X-gender manga artist Yuu Watase at Lucca Comics 2004 in Italy.
  • xenogender. Coined by Baaphomett in 2014. "A gender that cannot be contained by human understandings of gender; more concerned with crafting other methods of gender categorization and hierarchy such as those relating to animals, plants, or other creatures/things."[50] An umbrella term for many nonbinary gender identities defined in reference to very different ideas than female or male.
  • X-gender (Ｘジェンダー, ekkusujendā). In Japan, this is a common transgender identity that isn't female or male, much as the words "genderqueer" and "nonbinary" has come to be in the English-speaking world, to such a degree that "X-gender" is typically used as the Japanese translation for these.[51] The term "X-gender" began to be used in Kansai, in Osaka and Kyoto, during the latter 1990s, when it appeared in writings published by queer organizations in those regions.[52][53] Notable X-gender people include manga artist Yuu Watase (渡瀬 悠宇), who created the comics Fushigi Yūgi and Ceres, Celestial Legend.[54]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 NB/GQ Survey 2016 - the worldwide results, March 2016.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 https://gendercensus.com/post/183843963445/gender-census-2019-the-worldwide-tldr
  3. ↑ "angxl hxze on Twitter", February 14, 2015
  4. ↑ "angxl hxze on Twitter", February 14, 2015
  5. ↑ Kuttner, Amita (2019). "Identity in Politics". amitakuttner.ca. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  6. ↑ Instagram bio accessed 1 June 2020
  7. ↑ Twitter bio
  8. ↑ Raphael Carter, "Not this, not that: A meditation on labels." July 14, 1996. Androgyny RAQ (Rarely Asked Questions) (personal site). https://web.archive.org/web/20041209234238/http://www.chaparraltree.com/raq/notthis.shtml
  9. ↑ Katz, Jonathan Ned. "Transgender Memoir of 1921 Found". Humanities and Social Sciences Online. N.p., 10 October 2010. Web. Retrieved April 13, 2017.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 Laura Erickson-Schroth, ed. Trans Bodies, Trans Selves: A Resource for the Transgender Community. Oxford University Press, 2014. P. 612.
  11. ↑ Schneider, M., et al, American Psychological Association, APA Task Force on Gender Identity, Gender Variance, and Intersex Conditions, 2008 Answers to Your Questions About Transgender People, Gender Identity, And Gender Expression (PDF), date unknown, captured April 2016.
  12. ↑ Eyler, A.E.; Wright, K. (1997). "Gender Identification and Sexual Orientation Among Genetic Females with Gender-Blended Self-Perception in Childhood and Adolescence". International Journal of Transgenderism.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Levitt, Heidi (February 2003). "The Misunderstood Gender: A Model of Modern Femme Identity". Sex Roles. 48 (3/4): 99–113. doi:10.1023/A:1022453304384. Retrieved May 2, 2016.
  14. ↑ Kennedy, Elizabeth Lapovsky; Madeline D. Davis (1993). Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community. New York: Routledge. pp. 82–86. ISBN 0-415-90293-2.
  15. ↑ Leslie Feinberg, Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to RuPaul. Boston: Beacon Press, 1996. p. x.
  16. ↑ Henry Rubin, Self-Made Men: Identity and Embodiment Among Transsexual Men. Vanderbilt University Press, 2003. P. 79.
  17. ↑ Jack Halberstam, Female Masculinity, Durham: Duke University, 2018. p. 122.
  18. ↑ Henry Rubin, Self-Made Men: Identity and Embodiment Among Transsexual Men. Vanderbilt University Press, 2003. P. 24.
  19. ↑ Jack Halberstam, Female Masculinity, Durham: Duke University, 2018. p. xi.
  20. ↑ Why we need gender-neutral bathrooms, Ivan Coyote, November 2015
  21. ↑ "Gender Landmines: Trans Masculinities, Femininities, and Binaries: A Review of Ivan Coyote and Rae Spoon's Gender Failure". Casey the Canadian Lesbrarian. 7 July 2014. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
  22. ↑ https://abcbookworld.com/writer/coyote-ivan-e/
  23. ↑ Guerrero, Desirée (21 April 2020). "Genderqueer Comic Kelli Dunham On Getting (Thee) Away From a Nunnery". The Advocate. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  24. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/thefatsextherapist/
  25. ↑ Definitions Master List, asexualityorg proboards, posted August 2012, captured April 2016.
  26. ↑ AVEN: Definitions Master List
  27. ↑ vector (revolutionator). Untitled post, September 2013. revolutionator's blog is password-protected, but the post has been reblogged many times, eg: here, date unknown, captured April 2016.
  28. ↑ William Kremer (18 February 2014). "The evolutionary puzzle of homosexuality". BBC News. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  29. ↑ Laura Erickson-Schroth, ed. Trans Bodies, Trans Selves: A Resource for the Transgender Community. Oxford University Press, 2014. P. 613.
  30. ↑ Raymond, Gerard (July 11, 2018). "Interview: Kate Bornstein on Their Broadway Debut in Straight White Men". Slant Magazine. Retrieved May 16, 2020.
  31. ↑ @sassafraslowrey (11 October 2019). "and to have made a core aspect of my career around writing the queerest books and stories I can imagine. Happy #NationalComingOutDay Queerly yours a: #runaway, formerly #homeless, #genderqueer, #trans, #femme, #queer, #polyamorous, #asexual, #little, #leather boy" – via Twitter.
  32. ↑ {{Cite web |title=PEOPLE: Why Sharon daVanport built a support network for autistic women and nonbinary people |author= |work=Echo Chamber Escape |date=May 26, 2020 |access-date=May 28, 2020 |url= https://echochamberescape.com/2020/05/26/people-why-sharon-davanport-built-a-support-network-for-autistic-women-and-nonbinary-people
  33. ↑ @Dev_Blair (25 January 2018). "Starting 2 prefer "they" pronouns because so many people wanna equate "she" pronouns w/ me being a woman n that's not really what I mean when I say non-binary femme-what I mean is my gender is neither male nor female but I do strongly align with femininity" – via Twitter.
  34. ↑ "Genderflux Information and Resources". Archived from the original on 21 March 2016.
  35. ↑ Reddy, Gayatri, With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India, 310 pp., University of Chicago Press, 2005 ISBN 0-226-70755-5 (see p. 8)
  36. ↑ "India's third gender gets own identity in voter rolls", Harmeet Shah Singh, CNN.com, Nov. 2009
  37. ↑ Mitch Kellaway. "Trans Indian's Predicament at Border Shows the U.S. Lags Behind." May 9, 2015. Advocate. http://www.advocate.com/politics/transgender/2015/05/09/trans-indian-womans-predicament-border-shows-us-lags-behind
  38. ↑ "Pakistan Recognizes Third Gender", Ria Misra, Politics Daily, Dec. 2009
  39. ↑ "Hijras now a separate gender", Mohosinul Karim, Dhaka Tribune, Nov. 2013
  40. ↑ http://www.attn.com/stories/868/transgender-passport-status
  41. ↑ The men-women of the Pacific, tate.org.uk/Tate Britain, archive URL 6 March 2015.
  42. ↑ maverique, Vesper H. (queerascat), June 2014, captured April 2016.
  43. ↑ Axey, Qwill, Rave, and Luscious Daniel, eds. “FAQ.” Neutrois Outpost. Last updated 2000-11-23. Retrieved 2001-03-07. [1]
  44. ↑ Define, Neutrois Nonsense, date unknown, captured April 2016.
  45. ↑ The Fallacy of the Myth of Gender, Christie Elan-Cane, USA and London Gendys Conference, 2000 [2]
  46. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20161015190830/http://polygender.co.uk/polygenfaq.htm
  47. ↑ http://gender.wikia.com/wiki/Pangender
  48. ↑ "Two Spirit 101" at NativeOut. Accessed 23 Sep 2015
  49. ↑ Eve Shapiro, Gender circuits: Bodies and identities in a technological age. Unpaged.
  50. ↑ "Masterpost of genders coined by Baaphomett." 2014. MOGAI Archive. [3]
  51. ↑ Marilyn Roxie. "Selected links on nonbinary gender in Japan." March 28, 2013. http://genderqueerid.com/post/46526429887/selected-links-on-non-binary-gender-in-japan
  52. ↑ http://rainbowaction.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-122.html
  53. ↑ S.P.F. Dale. "An Introduction to X-Jendā: Examining a New Gender Identity in Japan." Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific Issue 31, December 2012. http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue31/dale.htm
  54. ↑ https://twitter.com/wataseyuu_/status/1130461270358908928 ブログでもここでも呟いたけど、再度。 漫画にも影響してると思うから。 私はXジェンダーと医師に診断されてて、中身は、男にも女にも寄れるし男でも女でもない。 見た目はちゃんと(20代後半から社会に合わせて)どうせやるならやるでメイクもオシャレもする、それだけ。 女性の身体は否定しないが→ I blogged here and again, but again. I think it also affects manga. I have been diagnosed by X-gender and a doctor, and the contents are neither men nor women, nor men or women. It looks just fine (according to society from the late 20s), and if you do it, you can make and be fashionable. I do not deny the female body カンガタリ:リマスター｣⑪発売中 渡瀬悠宇:新刊｢アラタ date 2019-05-20 @wataseyuu_ access-date=2019-08-16
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