Today, July 14, is International Non Binary People’s Day. This is an important opportunity to highlight and celebrate a huge portion of our community, especially as recent studies have shown that the amount of people who identify as non binary is far larger than many would assume.
In a recent survey by the Trevor Project of 35,000 young LGBTQ+ people, one-in-four identified as non binary. The survey also highlighted the importance of identities being respected, as suicidal ideation dropped by more than half amongst those who saw their pronouns and identities being respected by family and friends, and among those who were able to change their gender markers on legal documents.
One of the researchers involved, Jonah DeChants, shared, “More and more young people are taking control over their gender identity, and finding language and terms that resonate with them, and expressing that in the world in (ways) that we haven’t necessarily seen in the past.” Further in the survey by the Trevor Project, they found that race, ethnicity, age group and background did not have a part to play in who identified as non binary.
Star Demi Lovato, who recently shared that they were non binary, took to social media to say, “a lot more people would identify as non binary if they understand what it meant.” They continued, “non binary refers to a range of gender identities that aren’t man or woman (ie the binary genders). There’s no singular way to identify with the label or its meaning- some non binary people identify more closely with masculinity or femininity, with both or with neither.”
For those who think that a rise in people identifying as non binary is a ‘new’ occurrence, Lovato responded, “non binary isn’t a gen-z trend. Across cultures, people have been identifying as genders other than men and women for as long as people have been around. The concept of non binary genders isn’t new – but the accessibility to information about this topic is, which is a part of why an increasing amount of young people are coming out as non binary.”
Happy International Non Binary People’s Day to all our enby family.
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