Découverte de la non-binarité : le témoignage de Cami

Even if you don't understand,

You can still suppport us.

Our identity remains valid,

and it exists.

I'm Camille, I'm 22, I'm non-binary,

and I'm here to talk to you about non-binarity.

Non-binarity is an umbrella term

which includes all gender identites

that are neither exclusively masculine

nor exclusively feminine.

This can include a-gender identities-

those that involve the absence of gender or a neutral gender-

or this can include fluid identities,

as if we imagined gender as a spectrum with two ends:

Maculine and feminine.

One may have a position on this spectrum that shifts.

Including those who are genderfluid, demigender, pangender, etc.

I never really identified with femininity.

When I was 18,

I started questioning my gender identity.

And I met a trans man

who I spent some time with

and together, we found the right words to describe my identity-

which is non-binary.

I think that since he had much more information than I did,

he was able to help me find the words

regarding my identity.

Gender identity is who we are;

it's the gender we feel,

that we live, and experiment,

and gender expression

is what we present to others,

It's the way that we express this identity.

So, one can have a gender identity,

for example, masculine :

So, one may be a man,

and still have a gender expression that is feminine,

with many markers considered feminine in society.

For example, Bilal Hassani,

who is a man with a feminine gender expression.

I told my parents that I was non-binary

and that I wanted to change my name

at the same time.

I was 20 years old,

so it was two years ago.

My mother took it very well;

she was already well versed in gender issues.

She was open-minded and very supportive.

I felt safe.

With my father, it was a bit more complicated.

It took me longer to tell him,

and I didn’t do it in person.

I sent him a message actually,

because it was easier for me to handle.

He reacted fairly well,

he said he didn’t understand everything, but that he would be there to support me

and that it didn’t change anything for him

and he still loved me the same.

With my grandmother, it was a little harder,

because it was something very foreign to her.

She grew up in the country, then moved to Paris,

She lived with my grandfather for 50 years.

She was part of a very cis-heteronormative framework