X-gender

X-gender (Xジェンダー x-jendā, or エックスジェンダー ekkusu-jendā) is a common transgender identity that isn't female or male. The word X-gender is used in Japan in the same way that genderqueer and nonbinary are used in English.

Definitions
The "X" in X-gender has several meanings.

X-gender is said as "X gender," as in the unknown X in mathematics, not "cross gender" as in an intersection.

X-gender is also related to the use in some countries of “x gender” on paperwork for a gender other than man or woman.

The term "X-gender" is also related to other jargon used throughout the transgender community. There is a widespread practice of trans women and people on the trans-feminine spectrum abbreviating their transition direction, "male-to-female," as "MtF." Meanwhile, trans men and people on the trans-masculine spectrum abbreviating "female-to-male" as "FtM." Following this, trans people who don't identify as male or female substitute an X for their transition direction. X-gender and other nonbinary people have described their transition direction as "male-to-X" as "MtX," and "female-to-X." The term "XtX" is also used by people who were born with an intersex condition and have a gender identity that is neither male nor female.

History
The term "X-gender" began to be used in Osaka in the latter half of the 1990s.

Characteristics
There are also several categories of gender in X-gender. Chiefly, there are thought to be four: neutral (中性), which is between male and female; bigender (両性), which is somewhat both; genderfluid (不定性), which changes between genders in different situations; and agender (無性), which have no gender of their own. There is no need to be bound by these four categories.

In addition to the above, it is thought that there are various gender identities. In addition, male gender identity is dominant in neutral or bigender X-gender as male X-gender, whereas when female gender identity is dominant, it is sometimes referred to as female X-gender. Furthermore, there can be differences in the proportion of the male and female they feel, and since there are also X-gender and others with neutral or bigender identities other than the concept of men and women, even among those belonging to either one, it is said that there are no two people with the same gender identity in X gender.

X-gender is a gender identity, not a romantic or sexual orientation. X-gender people may feel attraction to men, women, both, and/or other X-gender people, or they may be asexual.

Online communities

 * MtXとFtX・Xジェンダー・GDのための会員制サークル 「label X(ラベル・エックス)」 (Membership circle for MtX, FtX, and X-gender)