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.
AEdit
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. People have been calling themselves agender since at least before 2013.[1] 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.[2] In the 2016 Nonbinary/Genderqueer Survey, 944 of the 3,055 respondents (31%) were agender.[3] In the 2019 Worldwide Gender Census, 2,723 of the 11,242 respondents (24.22%) were agender.[4] Notable agender people include rapper Angel Haze,[5] [6] astrophysicist Amita Kuttner,[7] model Juno Mitchell,[8] and poet Bogi Takács.[9]
- androgyne. This ancient word from Latin means man-woman, and it entered English in the 12th century.[10] For over a century, it has been used for a wide variety of kinds of gender nonconformance, gender identities, and gender expressions that do not fit into the gender binary.[2] It has been used as an umbrella term for them. Androgyne can mean intersex, but not all androgynes are intersex.[11] 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).[12] In the 2016 Nonbinary/Genderqueer Survey, 380 of the respondents (12%) called themselves androgynes.[3] In the 2019 Worldwide Gender Census, 1054 of the respondents (9.3%) called themselves androgynes.[4]
BEdit
- bigender, or bi-gender. A bigender person feels they have two gender identities, at the same time, or at different times.[2][13] A bigender person may move between their gender expressions based on their situation or their feelings.[2] These two genders might be female and male, or they might be a different pair of genders. This identity (in the form "bigendered") was in use as early as 1995.[14] In 1997, it was described in International Journal of Transgenderism.[15] The American Psychological Association (APA) recognizes bigender as one type of transgender person.[13] A 1999 survey conducted by the San Francisco Department of Public Health observed that, among the transgender community, less than 3% of those who were assigned male at birth and less than 8% of those who were assigned female at birth identified as bigender.[16] In the 2016 Nonbinary/Genderqueer Survey, 123 of the respondents (4%) were bigender.[3] In the 2019 Worldwide Gender Census, 419 of the respondents (3.72%) were bigender.[4] Notable bigender people include the top-charting musician B-Complex,[17] the speculative fiction writer R.B. Lemberg,[18][19] and the young adult novelist Mia Siegert.[20]
A bissu leader named Puang Matoa Saidi, in 2004.[21]
- bissu. For the past six centuries, the Bugis people of Indonesia have divided their society into five genders, which must coexist harmoniously: oroané (cisgender men), makkunrai (cisgender women), calabai (transgender women), calalai (transgender men), and bissu (all aspects of gender combined to form a whole).[22][23][24][25][26][27] Someone is born with the propensity to become bissu if they are intersex, but ambiguous genitalia alone do not confer the state of being a bissu, and ambiguous genitalia need not be visible. A normative male who becomes a bissu is believed to be female on the inside.[28] In order to become bissu, one must learn priestly skills, remain celibate, and wear conservative clothes.[29][30] Until the 1940s, the bissu were central to keeping ancient palace rituals alive, including coronations of kings and queens.[29] Changes in the Bugis government sidelined the bissu. Persecution from hardline Islamic groups, police, and politicians resulted in fewer people taking on the role. By 2019, the bissu still exist, though their numbers have declined. Bissu today participate in weddings as maids of honour, and work as farmers, as well as performing their cultural roles as priests.[29]
- boi. A queer masculine identity which is not cis-heteronormative.[31] Boi originated in African American culture during the 1990s. It covers a wide variety of alternative masculine identities in emo, BDSM, gay male, lesbian, and genderqueer communities. For some, but not all, boi is an identity outside the gender binary. Not all who use it are people of color. Definitions of "boi" vary widely.[32][33][34][35] In the 2016 Nonbinary/Genderqueer Survey, 3 of the respondents said their gender was boi.[3] In the 2019 Worldwide Gender Census, 76 of the respondents (0.68%) said their gender was boi, or used boi as part of a word for their gender identity, such as femme boy, femboi, tomboi, or demiboy.[4]
- butch. Butch is a queer masculine identity.[32] It originated in working-class lesbian bar culture in the 1940s and 50s.[36][37] Leslie Feinberg, who was a butch of the 1950s onward and a trans person,[38] 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.[32] Butch-femme couples are not a rule, especially not after cultural changes in lesbian culture in the 1970s.[39] Butch-femme couples are not an imitation of heterosexuality.[40] 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."[41] Though butch most often means a lesbian woman, not all are.[32] 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".[42] Butch is a diverse category. Some people choose to call themselves butch.[32] In the 2016 Nonbinary/Genderqueer Survey, 6 of the respondents said they were butch.[3] In the 2019 Worldwide Gender Census, 105 of the respondents (0.93%) called their identity butch, or some form of it, such as soft butch.[4] Notable people who call themselves butch as an identity outside the gender binary include writer Ivan E. Coyote,[43][44][45] comedian Kelli Dunham,[46] and social worker Sonalee Rashatwar.[47]
DEdit
- demiboy. A gender identity that is both male and genderless.[48][3] In the 2019 Worldwide Gender Census, 834 of the respondents (7.42%) said they were a demiboy, demiguy, demiman, or other form of this identity.[4]
- demigender.[3] An umbrella term for nonbinary identities that have a partial connection to a certain gender. In the 2016 Nonbinary/Genderqueer Survey, 459 of the respondents (15%) said they were demigender, or a form of demigender, such as demiagender, demifluid, demifemme, demimasculine, or demigal.[3] In the 2019 Worldwide Gender Census, 2,331 of the respondents (20.73%) were demigender, demiboy, demigirl, deminonbinary, or other form of this identity.[4]
- demigirl.[3] A gender identity that is both female and genderless.[49] 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.[4]
FEdit
- fa'afafine. In Samoa, the Fa'afafine are people who were assigned male at birth (AMAB), have a feminine gender expression, and don't think of themselves as female or male.[50] It has been estimated that 1–5% of Samoans identify as fa'afafine.[51] Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand estimates that there are 500 fa’afafine in Samoa, and the same number in the Samoan diaspora in New Zealand,[52] while according to SBS news, there are up to 3,000 fa'afafine currently living in Samoa.[53] The masculine and assigned female at birth (AFAB) counterpart of fa'afafine in Samoa are known variously as faʻatane, faʻatama, and fafatama.[citation needed]
- femme. From the French word for "woman," femme originated as a queer feminine identity in 1950s working-class lesbian bar culture.[36] 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.[54] Femme does not simply mean a conventionally feminine woman, and is instead a culturally transgressive queer identity. Surveys show that a significant percentage of nonbinary and genderqueer people identify as femme. Or, to put it another way, that many femmes consider themselves nonbinary or genderqueer. In the 2016 Nonbinary/Genderqueer Survey, 20 of the respondents (0.65%) called themselves a femme, a nonbinary femme, or othe variations.[3] In the 2019 Worldwide Gender Census, 1.35% of the respondents identified as some form of femme.[4] Some notable people who identify as femme outside the binary include author Kate Bornstein,[55] journalist Sassafras Lowrey,[56] disability rights activist Sharon daVanport,[57] and multimedia artist Dev Blair.[58]
GEdit
- genderfluid, gender fluid, or fluid gender. A gender identity that often changes, so that a person may feel one day like a boy, and another day like a girl, or some other gender.[59] It has been in use since at least the 1990s.[60][61] In the 2016 Nonbinary/Genderqueer Survey, 947 of the respondents (31%) called themselves genderfluid, or otherwise called themselves "fluid."[3] In the 2019 Worldwide Gender Census, 2,446 of the respondents (21.76%) were genderfluid, or otherwise called themselves "fluid."[4]
- genderflux. 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. This usage of the word was coined in 2014 on Tumblr.[62] In the 2016 Nonbinary/Genderqueer Survey, 36 of the respondents (1.18%) called themselves gende