Even if you are unfamiliar

you can always follow along
and support us

Our identity and existence
remains legitimate

Non-Binarity
Cami's Testimony

My name is Cami,
I am 22 years old and non-binary

and I'm here to discuss 
non-binary identity

Non-binary is an umbrella term

that includes many 
genre identities

that are neither
exclusively masculine

nor exclusively feminine.

Including, for instance, agender

"A" meaning subtraction,
without gender or gender neutral

Or, this can include
gender fluid identities.

If we imagine gender as 
a spectrum with two poles

the masculine and
the feminine.

We can imagine
a sliding scale.

Including all the people
who are genderfluid

demi-gender, pangender, etc.

I never really identified
with femininity.

By 18 I had already begun
to question

regarding my gender identity

then I met a trans man

who I was with for some time

and we began
to put my identity into words,

which ended up being
non-binary

I think it was because

he had much more
information than me

that he helped me 
identify my identity in words.

Gender identity is who we are

It's the gender we feel,

that we live and
that we experiment

Gender expression is
what we show others

It is how we express our identity.

We can have a gender identity

for example: masculine

So, we are a man,

we will have
an expression of gender

that will be feminine

with many signifiers 
considered feminine in society.

Like, for example,
Balil Hassani, who is a man

with a feminine gender expression

I came out to my parents as non-binary

and that I wanted 
to change pronouns

at the same time.

I was 20 years old,
it was two years ago

My mother took it very well

She was already very up-to-date
on the idea of gender

She was understanding enough,
and very safe

It made me feel secure.

My father was a different story

I put a little more time into 
talking with him

and I didn't

in reality.

I sent time a message in the end 
because it was easier for me

He received it well enough

He said that
he didn't fully understand

but he would still be there
to support me

and it didn't change anything for him.

For my grandmother, it wasn't as clear

because it was very foreign to her.

She grew up in the countryside, 
before moving to Paris.

She lived with my grandfather 
for 50 years.

She lived in very
cis hetero-normative regime

where she never
posed questions about identity

or the identity of others.

So when I told her,
she was a little taken aback,

but she had always tried 
to act in a way

that was best for me.

She puts in enormous effort

she doesn't struggle as much with
my preferred pronouns

I filled a request to change 
my first name

in 2019.

I filed a request

with the city hall in my town

I took a dossier which I had to fill

with testimonies from
my close friends and familly

stating they use the name Cami

to address me.