something i feel like queer ppl have been steadily forgetting over the last ten years or so is that “genderqueer” isn’t a specific nonbinary term, or even a synonym for nonbinary - it’s an umbrella term that encompasses nonbinariness and more.
any flavour of trans (yes including “binary trans”)? you can call yourself genderqueer. fem, butch, androgynous, drag artist, crossdresser, or in any other way gnc? you can also use genderqueer. detrans but not in a radfem death cult kind of way? you too can be genderqueer. “i guess i’m basically cis but my other queer identity impacts my gender in a way that’s hard to put into words-” genderqueer!
it’s entirely acceptable and normal to be genderqueer but not nonbinary or genderqueer but not trans. it means literally nothing but “i’ve got a gender that’s queer” and it fucking rules we should use it so much more
This! There was a period of time where this was well known and understood and then suddenly the genderqueer umbrella was closed up into a word synonymous with nonbinary. I’d just about given up fighting to get that umbrella back open, or at least remind people that it was once much more open.
I started a new remote job last week, and I’m the only genderqueer person at the company (and the first person who uses neo pronouns that anyone on my team has ever met, apparently).
So far:
Manager carefully wrote down spelling and pronunciation of my pronouns and told everyone on the team to respect them.
Coworker apologized privately for misgendering me (I hadn’t told her yet) and said she will practice.
Guy on another team valiantly tried to use my pronouns and ended up saying something like zirzs-zhizz (I DM’d him and thanked him for trying and linked him to a practice site).
Teammate told me he has written out my pronouns and how to use them in a sentence and literally taped it to his monitor so he can practice.
Teammate also referred to me as compañereafter I linked to a comic about gender-neutral endings in Spanish (whole team except me + 1 other person speaks Spanish as first language and they held all meetings in Spanish before the two of us started).
a page from Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe that means a lot to me
ID: A comic. Label above reads, in all-caps; “As I pondered a pronoun change, I began to think of gender less as a scale and more as a landscape.” A scene of a landscape is shown, with mountains on the right slowly receding from cliffs to forest to beach to ocean. Caption reads; “Some people are born in the mountains, while others are born in the sea. Some people are happy to live in the place they are born, while others must make a journey to reach the climate in which they can flourish and grow.” The panel underneath that shows a thicket of wildflowers like nasturtium, dandelions, clover, and thickets. The background is a soft gradient of pale yellow to orange. Panel reads; “Between the ocean and the mountains is a wild forest. That is where I want to make my home.” END ID.
