The NonBinary Agenda

Except you are living under a rock, you by now, must have heard the term NonBinary aka ENBY a subclass of the transgender community. If not, well here goes.

A few years ago, my eldest child introduced me to the world of "nonbinaryness". I knew nothing, and I mean, nothing about that world and that word. Yet, I was a self-proclaimed #proudlybisexual human and married to my ex-wife.

I am saying that no one person knows everything, but we can all learn anew. The term nonbinary refers to persons on the transgender spectrum who do not identify exclusively as cisgender. Their identity is inclusive of a range of identities such as transgender, agender, bigender, etc.

The world as we know it is largely binary, meaning, divided into males and females and sadly expectations also follow that division. We assign various behaviors to people based on their gender, making it essentially a bogus societal construct. Even non-English languages like Spanish and French are gendered.

Gender identity is a deep personal sense of self. It is a feeling. It is also a process. It is something that remains in evolution. It is a practice and you can't argue with someone's gender, because it is very individual.

BRIEF HISTORY

As it turns out, nonbinary people – like all LGBTQ+ people – have always existed, everywhere. Out & Equal has created a resource that traces nonbinary identities back to 2000 BCE and locates historical touchpoints of these identities.

Who knew right? Yup, as much as there are principalities currently working very hard to "cancel" the existence of LGBTQ+ people, we have always been here, and we ain't going nowhere.

These past 2 weeks, the #mamabeasts of the #moms4transkids podcast have been focusing our energies on persons with #NonBinary experience. That is because last month, we all heard about the tragic death of Nex Benedict , a young nonbinary student who was bullied to death at their school in Oklahoma.

Whatever your views are about nonbinary people or the LGBTQ+ community as a whole, no one deserves to die for living authentically. In my upcoming book, About Your Black Transgender Child", I discuss this fact in detail, one of my original quotes used in the book is "When a child shares their true gender identity, they are suddenly in danger."

And that was the case with Nex Benedict.

Nonbinary people are exposed to various forms of discrimination and marginalization, and there is often a major lack of recognition of their existence in society. Hence the high numbers of discrimination in healthcare, employment, education, etc.

This week, our guest was Alex Vaughan , a nonbinary educator, advocate, and activist in their own right. Alex described how they have never felt comfortable in their skin as a "girlchild." They explained how they struggled with finding a name that best described who they feel they are.

They eventually found nonbinary in adulthood! They described in detail how they currently bind daily to "pass" more as a non-woman. And how they are even considering top surgery. And how they struggle with being a parent of a trans child and other aspects of life in general that we all take for granted.

One of the most beautiful things mentioned is that we are indeed all transitioning and evolving and it is a beautiful thing.

Intersectionality:

As with any minority identity, nonbinary identity also intersects with other aspects of identity, such as race, ethnicity, class, disability, and sexual orientation. And all these intersecting identities can compound discrimination and oppression faced by nonbinary individuals.

Legal and Policy Issues: In today's toxic legislative arena, nonbinary persons are often caught in the cracks of the legal and policy frameworks surrounding their rights, including challenges related to legal recognition of nonbinary gender markers on official documents, access to gender-affirming healthcare, and protection from discrimination based on gender identity.

For instance, does your place of work recognize nonbinary persons?? Yesterday, while scrolling through LI, I came across this post by ??Nomi Slack-Lehman?? with some staggering statistics (see below). Kindly read and share your thoughts on their post, and then follow and support them.

• 48% of trans adults use they/them pronouns.
• 53% of trans adults in the US are 18-34.
• 64% of those who are 18-35 years old use they/them pronouns.

Now, I want you to do me a favor, and take a moment to close your eyes and imagine a Black, nonbinary, autistic immigrant child...

Yes... Hold that thought. Thank you.

Kindly watch or listen to this week's episode of the #moms4transkidspodcast and share your thoughts. It was very educational as always and enlightening AF. At one point, one of our listeners even asked a simple but important question: "What is a cisgender woman?" Goes to show, that you never know who is watching and who needs more education.

And that is why we have dedicated ourselves to educating and sharing our expertise and experiences with you.

If you or anyone you know would be interested in more education about their parenting journey, kindly reach out. Dr. Lulu's PRIDE Corner is now open for business, or if you'd prefer to grab a spot on my calendar , that would be fine as well.

Cheers!

Dr. Lulu