9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Even if you don't understand, you can [br]always support us and be with us.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Our identity is real and it exists.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
My name is Camille, I'm 22 years old.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I'm non-binary and I'm here to talk to [br]you about nonbinarity.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Nonbinarity is an umbrella term that [br]includes all the gender identities

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that are neither completely masculine [br]nor completely feminine.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So that can be "ungendered" or without[br]gender which is neutral,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
or it can be all the gender fluid[br]identities, including those

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
who are gender fluid, demigendered, [br]pangendered , etcetera.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
If you imagine gender as a spectrum [br]with two poles - masculine and feminine -

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and a cursor that could be anywhere [br]between them, it would include everyone

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
who is gender fluid, demigender, [br]pangender and so on.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I never really identified with femininity[br]and when I was 18,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I'd aleady started to ask myself [br]questions about my gender identity.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I met a trans man I was with for awhile [br]and together, we found the words

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
for my identity, which was non-binary. And[br]because he knew more about it than I did,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
he could help me find the words for[br]my gender identity.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Gender identity, it's who you are, the[br]gender that you feel, that you try out.

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And gender expression is what you [br]show to others.

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It's the way you explain your identity.

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So you can have a gender identity, for[br]example masculine, so you're a man.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But your gender identity could be feminine

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
with lots of markers that our society [br]considers to be feminine.

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For example Bilal Hissani, who is a man[br]with female gender expression.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I told my parents I was non-binary and at[br]the same time,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that I wanted to change my first name.

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I was 20 years old so it was 2 years [br]ago and my my mom took it very well.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
She was already totally up to speed [br]about questions of gender.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
She was sufficiently deconstructed and[br]I felt very safe, very secure with her.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
My dad, that was a little more delicate.[br]I took more time to talk to him about it.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And in fact I didn't really do that -

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I sent him a message because it was easier[br]for me to handle. And he reacted well.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
He said he didn't understand everything [br]but he'd always be there to support me,

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and it that it didn't change anything for [br]him, that he loved me just as much.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
For my grandmother, it was loss obvious[br]because it was a foreign concept for her.

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She grew up in the country, [br]then went toParis.

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She was with my grandfather for 50 years[br]and was very much cis-heteronormative,

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where she neve questioned her [br]identity or that of others.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So when I talked to her about it, [br]she was a bit surprised,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but she always tried to behave in the [br]best way she could with me.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
She tried really hard. She almost never [br]made mistakes in my first name.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I'd made a request to change my fist name[br]in 2019, through my town's city hall.

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I got an application form that I filled[br]with testimonies from my family and

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
friends to say that they used the first [br]name Cami to talk to me.

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I asked my school to write a letter[br]of support, and so on.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Next, I submitted the application.[br]I waited a few months.

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In fact, that varies from city to city,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but my request to change my name[br]was accepted.

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To misgender someone is to speak to them[br]using the wrong pronouns,

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which thus genders a non-binary person[br]who would have explicitly said

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to use neutral pronouns like iel.

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And instead people use pronouns that [br]identify them as feminine or masculine.

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Personally, I use feminine pronouns in [br]speaking and neutral pronouns to writing.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It's true that in general I tend to [br]say up front that I prefer people to use

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feminine pronouns when they speak to me.[br]If they don't do that on their own

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and you want to be sure that you[br]indentify their gender correctly,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
you can ask them their pronouns or [br]wait until they identify their gender

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
so you can follow their gendering.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In the videos I made earlier, [br]there were a lot of comments

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that invalidated our identities, that [br]denied our gender expressions

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and our gender identities. After, I read[br]very few of those comments because I know

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that for the most part they're malicious [br]or very insensitive.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And they just bring me pain.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I've already taken part in a report where[br]you could hear that it's just a fad,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that it appeared a few years ago.[br]In the United States, about 10 year ago

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
it was related to fashion, like [br]unisex fashion and so on.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
That completely false and I also think

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
it's a point of view that's totally [br]white and absolutely Eurocentric.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Because in so many cultures, there are

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
several gender identities that were [br]completely erased during colonisation.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Often enough, we hear it's problematic or[br]awkward to create more and more categories

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
for people to self identify and re-self [br]identify. But I think it's so important,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in the first place, to be able to self [br]identify with something in order to

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
de-self identify with an identity [br]that was arbitrarily assigned.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And I think it's also necessary to find a[br]community, to create a link,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to know that we're not alone, that there's[br]support, that there are other people

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
who are like us, who understand us, [br]who listen to us.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
If I have only one thing to say, it would[br]be that even it you don't understand,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
you can always support us and be with us.[br]You can learn.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
You can deconstruct the [br]patterns of thought.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
You can help your friends and family, [br]even if you don't entirely understand

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the impact of what their gender[br]means to them.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
A second thing is that all non-binary [br]people have different ways

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of expressing their identity.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
There are those who will have medical[br]transitions, who have take hormones,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
who will have operations, other things.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And no matter how they are [br]going to transition or not,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
socially, medically and so on,[br]our identity is legitimate and it exists.

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And there are many of us.