0:00:00.000,0:00:01.726
Even if you are unfamiliar

0:00:01.726,0:00:03.806
you can always follow along[br]and support us

0:00:03.806,0:00:07.460
Our identity and existence[br]remains legitimate

0:00:07.460,0:00:09.261
Non-Binarity[br]Cami's Testimony

0:00:09.261,0:00:11.689
My name is Cami,[br]I am 22 years old and non-binary

0:00:11.689,0:00:13.766
and I'm here to discuss [br]non-binary identity

0:00:13.766,0:00:15.536
Non-binary is an umbrella term

0:00:15.536,0:00:17.766
that includes many [br]genre identities

0:00:17.766,0:00:19.586
that are neither[br]exclusively masculine

0:00:19.586,0:00:20.857
nor exclusively feminine.

0:00:20.857,0:00:22.877
Including, for instance, agender

0:00:22.877,0:00:25.443
"A" meaning subtraction,[br]without gender or gender neutral

0:00:25.450,0:00:27.741
Or, this can include[br]gender fluid identities.

0:00:27.741,0:00:30.989
If we imagine gender as [br]a spectrum with two poles

0:00:30.989,0:00:32.460
the masculine and[br]the feminine.

0:00:32.460,0:00:34.650
We can imagine[br]a sliding scale.

0:00:34.650,0:00:36.830
Including all the people[br]who are genderfluid

0:00:36.830,0:00:39.220
demi-gender, pangender, etc.

0:00:39.442,0:00:42.322
I never really identified[br]with femininity.

0:00:42.491,0:00:45.814
By 18 I had already begun[br]to question

0:00:45.814,0:00:48.206
regarding my gender identity

0:00:48.206,0:00:50.250
then I met a trans man

0:00:50.250,0:00:52.350
who I was with for some time

0:00:52.350,0:00:54.766
and we began[br]to put my identity into words,

0:00:54.766,0:00:56.755
which ended up being[br]non-binary

0:00:56.755,0:00:57.967
I think it was because

0:00:57.967,0:00:59.920
he had much more[br]information than me

0:00:59.925,0:01:03.442
that he helped me [br]identify my identity in words.

0:01:03.464,0:01:05.344
Gender identity is who we are

0:01:05.354,0:01:07.514
It's the gender we feel,

0:01:07.514,0:01:09.862
that we live and[br]that we experiment

0:01:09.869,0:01:13.262
Gender expression is[br]what we show others

0:01:13.265,0:01:16.226
It is how we express our identity.

0:01:16.226,0:01:18.860
We can have a gender identity

0:01:18.860,0:01:19.809
for example: masculine

0:01:19.809,0:01:21.267
So, we are a man,

0:01:21.267,0:01:22.906
we will have[br]an expression of gender

0:01:22.906,0:01:23.986
that will be feminine

0:01:23.986,0:01:26.438
with many signifiers [br]considered feminine in society.

0:01:26.438,0:01:28.583
Like, for example,[br]Balil Hassani, who is a man

0:01:28.583,0:01:30.723
with a feminine gender expression

0:01:31.300,0:01:34.651
I came out to my parents as non-binary

0:01:34.651,0:01:36.809
and that I wanted [br]to change my name

0:01:36.812,0:01:38.152
at the same time.

0:01:38.152,0:01:41.152
I was 20 years old,[br]it was two years ago

0:01:41.152,0:01:43.631
My mother took it very well

0:01:43.631,0:01:46.911
She was already very up-to-date[br]on the idea of gender

0:01:46.911,0:01:49.511
She was understanding enough,[br]and very safe

0:01:49.511,0:01:51.730
It made me feel secure.

0:01:51.344,0:01:53.263
My father was a different story

0:01:53.263,0:01:55.492
I put a little more time into [br]talking with him

0:01:55.492,0:01:56.915
and I didn't

0:01:56.915,0:01:58.109
in reality.

0:01:58.109,0:02:01.125
I sent time a message in the end [br]because it was easier for me

0:02:02.259,0:02:03.499
He received it well enough

0:02:03.510,0:02:05.360
He said that[br]he didn't fully understand

0:02:05.360,0:02:07.778
but he would still be there[br]to support me

0:02:07.778,0:02:09.632
and it didn't change anything for him.

0:02:09.632,0:02:12.252
For my grandmother, it wasn't as clear

0:02:12.252,0:02:14.722
because it was very foreign to her.

0:02:14.722,0:02:17.662
She grew up in the countryside, [br]before moving to Paris.

0:02:17.662,0:02:20.312
She lived with my grandfather [br]for 50 years.

0:02:20.312,0:02:22.592
She lived in very[br]cis hetero-normative regime

0:02:22.592,0:02:24.818
where she never[br]posed questions about identity

0:02:24.818,0:02:26.505
or the identity of others.

0:02:26.505,0:02:29.350
So when I told her,[br]she was a little taken aback,

0:02:29.350,0:02:33.437
but she had always tried [br]to act in a way

0:02:33.437,0:02:35.237
that was best for me.

0:02:35.237,0:02:36.527
She puts in enormous effort

0:02:36.527,0:02:39.100
she doesn't struggle as much with[br]my preferred pronouns

0:02:39.103,0:02:41.503
I filled a request to change [br]my first name

0:02:41.503,0:02:43.903
in 2019.

0:02:44.130,0:02:45.643
I filed a request

0:02:45.643,0:02:48.360
with the city hall in my town

0:02:48.732,0:02:50.772
I took a dossier which I had to fill

0:02:50.772,0:02:53.122
with testimonies from[br]my close friends and familly

0:02:53.122,0:02:54.888
stating they use the name Cami

0:02:54.888,0:02:56.533
to address me.

0:02:56.769,0:03:00.129
I asked my school for[br]a reference letter.

0:03:00.630,0:03:02.600
Then I returned my dossier.

0:03:02.600,0:03:04.300
I had to wait several months.

0:03:04.300,0:03:05.581
It varies by city.

0:03:05.581,0:03:07.871
And, I received an [br]acceptation of name change.

0:03:07.871,0:03:09.600
Improperly gendering a person is

0:03:09.600,0:03:11.410
addressing a person

0:03:11.410,0:03:13.274
using the wrong pronouns,

0:03:13.274,0:03:15.268
thus, gendering a non-binary person

0:03:15.268,0:03:18.127
who has explicitly said

0:03:18.127,0:03:20.377
use neutral pronouns like they

0:03:20.377,0:03:24.377
and or gendering as[br]masculine or feminine

0:03:24.384,0:03:27.741
Me, personally, I use feminine pronouns [br]when spoken out loud

0:03:27.741,0:03:29.871
and neutral when in writing.

0:03:29.871,0:03:32.273
In practice, I have a tendency to say

0:03:32.273,0:03:33.827
more often than not

0:03:33.827,0:03:36.507
that I prefer to be addressed with[br]feminine pronouns

0:03:36.507,0:03:39.237
That being said,[br]if a person doesn't say it themselves

0:03:39.237,0:03:42.712
and you want to gender them correctly

0:03:42.953,0:03:44.692
you can ask for their pronouns

0:03:44.692,0:03:46.991
or wait for them to say it themselves

0:03:46.991,0:03:48.817
to reflect their preferred gender

0:03:48.817,0:03:51.620
On my previous videos

0:03:51.620,0:03:53.490
there were many comments

0:03:53.496,0:03:55.826
which invalidated our identities,

0:03:55.826,0:04:00.476
which deny our gender expressions,[br]and our gender identities

0:04:00.799,0:04:03.912
I read very few of these comments

0:04:03.912,0:04:05.897
simply because I know,[br]for the most part,

0:04:05.897,0:04:08.707
they are malicious[br]or very, very misconstrued,

0:04:08.707,0:04:10.579
and just want to cause me greif.

0:04:10.579,0:04:14.579
I previously participated in an[br]exposé where it was said that

0:04:14.579,0:04:15.970
it was a trending fad,

0:04:15.970,0:04:17.901
that it appeared out of nowhere,

0:04:17.901,0:04:19.635
in the United States,[br]in the last decade,

0:04:19.635,0:04:22.127
that it was tied, really,[br]to the fashion

0:04:22.127,0:04:24.527
the unisex fashion, etc.

0:04:24.527,0:04:26.947
This was completely false.[br]And I think it was also

0:04:26.947,0:04:32.507
a super white point of view,[br]Eurocentric point of view,

0:04:33.156,0:04:35.281
because, in numerous cultures

0:04:35.281,0:04:37.445
we find many gender identities

0:04:37.445,0:04:39.779
that were completely erased

0:04:39.779,0:04:41.413
during colonialism, straight up.

0:04:41.413,0:04:44.740
All to often,[br]we hear that it's problematic,

0:04:44.740,0:04:50.140
or that it's annoying to recreate[br]more and more ways to identify, reidentify, etc.,

0:04:50.140,0:04:51.977
but I think it's super important

0:04:51.977,0:04:55.340
to be able to choose in the first place[br]how we identify,

0:04:55.340,0:04:59.237
not the identity that was given to us arbitrarily.

0:04:59.237,0:05:02.400
I think it is also important to[br]have a community,

0:05:02.400,0:05:04.582
to create connection,[br]to know we're not alone,

0:05:04.582,0:05:05.635
that there is support,

0:05:05.635,0:05:07.750
that there are other people[br]that are like us,

0:05:07.750,0:05:09.260
that understand us, [br]that listen to us.

0:05:09.260,0:05:11.327
If I have one thing to say

0:05:11.327,0:05:13.500
I think it would be that,[br]even if you don't understand,

0:05:13.500,0:05:16.440
you can always support[br]and stay open-minded.

0:05:16.440,0:05:17.500
You can learn,

0:05:17.500,0:05:19.568
you can deconstruct regimes of thought.

0:05:19.568,0:05:23.300
You can relearn,[br]you can hep those close to you,

0:05:23.300,0:05:24.862
even if you don't fully understand

0:05:24.862,0:05:28.371
everything that encompasses[br]their gender identity.

0:05:28.371,0:05:31.320
Secondly, it's that [br]everyone who is non-binary

0:05:31.320,0:05:34.705
has their own way of expressing [br]their identity,

0:05:34.705,0:05:37.662
that there are people who will have[br]medical transitions,

0:05:37.662,0:05:40.715
who will take hormones,[br]who will get operations elsewhere

0:05:40.715,0:05:44.685
and that, no matter how someone[br]chooses to transition,

0:05:44.685,0:05:47.828
whether that's socially, medically, etc.

0:05:47.828,0:05:51.380
Our identities remain legitimate, [br]they exist,

0:05:51.000,0:05:52.944
and we're here to stay.