A person is non-binary if their gender identity is something other than male or female. Non-binary individuals may identify as gender fluid, agender (without gender), off the binary, or something else entirely.
Sometimes non-binary people are included in the broad category of transgender people. This represents an evolution as, historically, being transgender was often conceptualized as requiring a movement between binary genders. The notion that transgender people have to be moving towards male or female genders has been both particularly strong and particularly problematic in the medical community.
It can be incredibly challenging to find information about sex and sexuality geared toward or focused around genderqueer and non-binary people. The lack of coverage of these identities in mainstream resources as well as trans* people in general has been a major barrier for sex health and sex education. Access to information about intimate relationships, sexual orientation, sexual health, and both general and specialized sex ed are important for everyone to have.
The gap in information on the sexuality of trans* people, non-binary, and genderqueer people has fortunately been narrowing in recent years, as well as the understanding that one’s own gender or sex identity is not the same as and does not necessarily imply a specific sexual orientation. Access to information about intimate relationships, sexual orientation, sexual health, and both general and specialized sex ed are important for everyone to have.
What Is Gender Identity?
A person’s gender identity is their internal sense of themselves as male, female, or another gender. Cisgender people are those whose gender identity is the same as the sex they were assigned at birth. Transgender people are those whose gender identity is different from their assigned sex at birth.
Gender identity is different from gender role or gender expression. Gender identity refers to how people understand themselves. Gender expression is how they portray themselves. Gender role is the collection of behaviors and activities that society expects to be associated with a particular gender, in this place and time. The notion that men and women are fundamentally different and should behave in very specific ways is sometimes referred to as gender essentialism
Gender is also different from sex and sexual orientation. Sex refers to a person’s biology—chromosomal, hormonal, and anatomical. Sexual orientation refers to a person’s romantic and sexual interest in other people. People of any sex can have any gender identity and sexual orientation. The concepts are independent.
What Is the Gender Binary?
The gender binary is the problematic notion that there are only two genders, and all individuals are either male or female. Some might argue that there are only two sexes, so there should only be two genders, but that argument is flawed.
Although we categorize most infants into male or female, there is more diversity than that in terms of both sex and gender. The biology of sex is complex. Most people are XX or XY, but some people are XXY or XO.
In addition, your chromosomes don’t fully determine your sexual anatomy. Some people are XY women. Other people have bodies that fall between male and female, chromosomally, anatomically, or hormonally.
Therefore, given the wide variety of sexual biology, it should not be surprising that there can also be a wide range of gender identity. Cultures around the world have recognized genders other than male and female throughout history. It’s just that now we are developing an English language vocabulary to describe the spectrum of gender identity we see.
Types of Non-Binary Gender
Non-binary is both a gender identity and a catch-all term to describe gender identities other than strictly male or female. While there are many types of non-binary gender, some are more commonly discussed than others. These include:
- Agender: Someone who identifies as without gender, or to whom gender does not feel like a salient concept. This is also sometimes referred to as being gender-free, nongender, or neutrois.
- Bigender: Someone who has two genders.
- Genderfluid: Someone whose gender moves around, either along the female-male binary or outside of it.
- Genderqueer: Another catch-all term for individuals with non-binary gender.
- Non-binary: Someone whose gender identity is neither male or female, also referred to as NB or enby.
- Off the binary: Someone whose gender identity does not fit well within the female-male spectrum. This may also be referred to as third-gender
Discussing Sexual Orientation
Have you ever noticed that discussing your sexual orientation means disclosing your gender identity? Sexual orientation words are generally used to draw a comparison between someone’s gender identity and the gender of the people they’re attracted to.
For example, if you are someone attracted to men who identifies as heterosexual, your gender is almost certainly female. However, when a person’s gender is complex, or you don’t want to disclose your gender identity, there are other words for talking about sexual orientation that focus on the people someone finds attractive while keeping their own gender out of the discussion.
This can be particularly a concern for people who are non-binary or gender fluid and trying to talk about the people they’re attracted to. To get around the limitations of words such as heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual, some people describe their sexual orientation as gynosexual, androsexual, or both.
A person who is gynosexual is sexually attracted to women. (Gyno is a prefix, derived from the Greek, used to describe things related to women.) A person who is androsexual is attracted to men. (Andro is the prefix used to describe things related to men.)