Genderqueer
 Meaning Lavender: mixture of pink (female) and blue (male); White: gender neutral or agender; Dark green: inverse of lavender, meaning the third gender | |
| Related identities | Nonbinary |
|---|---|
| Under the umbrella term | Transgender |
| Frequency | 35% |
| Click here to see alternative flags! | |
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Genderqueer, also called GenderQueer or gender queer, is an umbrella term that refers both to non-normative gender identity and gender expression. The label may also be used by individuals wishing to identify as holding queer or non-normative gender without being any more specific about the nature of their gender.
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.
Genderqueer Visibility Day is observed annually on April 25th.[2][3]
History[edit | edit source]
Genderqueer was coined in the 1990s as 'Gender Queer,' and was for a time written as 'GenderQueer' before becoming a single word. The original meaning was literally queer gender, including anyone who felt the way they experienced or expressed gender was queer. The term carries the non-normative and anti-assimilationist connotations of the Queer Movement and applies these to gender rather than sexuality.
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".[4]
Another early usage of the term was by Riki Anne Wilchins in the Spring 1995 newsletter of Transexual Menace:
| « | ...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 dykes and stone butches, leatherqueens and radical fairies, nelly fags, crossdressers, intersexed, transsexuals, transvestites, transgendered, transgressively gendered, and those of us whose gender expressions are so complex they haven’t even been named yet.[5] | » |
Riki Wilchins' essay from the 2002 anthology 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 transitioning people, pushing out those who did not fit this dominant transgender narrative.
By 1999/2000, online communities such as the Sphere mailing list were using the term genderqueer as an umbrella to unite a number of nonbinary gender identities and identifications that are now thought of as under the nonbinary umbrella. An example of this use of the word appears on the "Genderqueer Links" page of a personal website from 2002:[6]
Worthwhile websites by and about third-, bi-, poly-, inter-, other-, un- and non-gendered people.
Around 2002, a college student created genderqueers.com as an educational resource and "artistic, emotional, intellectual, and social outlet" for genderqueer people. They hosted an FAQ, a compilation of links to gender variance-related sites, a library of writing by genderqueer people, profiles of gender variant people, and a peer support forum.[7][8][9][10] Per the FAQ:[11]
What does the term "genderqueer" actually mean? The term "genderqueer" is a relatively new term in gender theory and identity, only becoming popular within the last couple of years. Basically when used as an identity, genderqueer means that person's gender is not contained within the traditional gender binary -- this means that they might identify as transgendered, transsexual, non-gendered, poly-gendered...the list is infinite. Genderqueer is to the male/female gender binary (or genderstraight) as being queer is to being straight -- the term queer encompasses anything that is outside the "norm." But, as should be remembered with all identities, it is up to the person to decide what it actually means, and the term genderqueer's definition is unique for every person who uses it to describe themselves.
Also in 2002, a genderqueer Livejournal community appeared, using a similarly broad definition:[12]
This community is for those of us who don't feel we fit the binary gender system in use by most of society. Ungendered, many gendered, a gender other than the one society thinks you should be? Do you express your gender(s) in nontraditional ways? You just might fit in here!
As of 2024, the community had 2,036 members and 4,030 journal entries; the last post was in January 2017.[12]
In the 2000s, genderqueer developed as a standalone identity with particular (sub)cultural expectations and connotations, while the tendency to identify particular experiences under its umbrella seemed to diminish. In a 2005 zine, Rocko Bulldagger critiqued the expectations that genderqueer identity acquired in this period, observing that people in genderqueer scenes were more concerned with constructing an identity that "reject[ed] M/F" than including a wider range of people who transgressed or engaged consciously with gender. She criticized the scene's increasing unfriendliness to people outside a narrow range of embodiments and expressions. Increasingly, "genderqueer" meant white, young, female-assigned and masculine people who did not use she/her, adhered to specific fashion trends, and had not passed certain milestones in medical transition.[13] However, both uses are still visible in different online and in person communities.
In the 2010s, a group called Genderqueer Chicago held weekly in-person discussion groups, hosted events, and maintained a community blog. The group was officially inclusive of anyone interested in discussing gender.[14]
Difference between Genderqueer and Nonbinary[edit | edit source]
Genderqueer means non-normative or queer gender while nonbinary means gender that falls outside the gender binary model. Both of these terms are extremely similar in scope, however in practice their connotations are significantly different.
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 within 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.