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Even if you don't understand
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You can still
support and standy by us.
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Our Identity is real
and it exists
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(Non-Binary Stories)
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My name is Cami, I'm 22 years old,
I am non-binary,
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and i'm here to explain
non-binary to you.
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Non-binary,
is an umbrella term
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which includes
all gender identities
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that are neither
exclusively masculine
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or exclusively feminine.
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It can be agender,
the "a" meaning a subtraction
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of gender
or gender neutrality
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or it can include
all fluid identities.
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Like if we imagine gender
as a spectrum with two poles,
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masculine and feminine.
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You can have a moving cursor
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that includes all people
who are gender fluid,
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demi-gender, pangender, etc.
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I've never really identified
with femininity.
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At 18 years old, I already started
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to ask questions
on my gender identity
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and I met a trans man
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With whom I'd been with for a while,
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and together we were able define
my identity
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which was non-binary.
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and I think it was due to him
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having way more
information than me
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that helped me find the words
to explain my identity.
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Gender identity is about who you are,
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the gender we feel,
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that we live in,
that we experience,
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and gender expression,
is what we show to others.
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It's how we express our identity.
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It's possible to have a gender identity,
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that's for example, male,
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you are a man,
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and then have a gender expression
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that is feminine
with many markers
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society considers feminine.
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Like for example,
Bilal Hassani, is a man
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with a feminine gender expression.
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I came out to my parents
as non-binary
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and that I wanted
to change my pronouns
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at the same time.
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I was 20, it was two years ago.
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My mom took it well.
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She was already well-versed
in gender issues
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She was quite casual and very safe,
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I felt safe.
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With my father,
it was little trickier
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it took me a little longer
to tell him
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and i didn't do it in person.
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I sent him a text
because it was easier
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for me to handle.
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He reacted fairly well.
He said that
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even if not fully
informed,
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he'd be there for me
no matter what
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and that it changes nothing
for him
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and he loved me the same.
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For my grandma, it wasn't as clear
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as it was something
very unfamiliar for her.
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She grew up in the countryside,
later moving to Paris.
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She lived with my grandpa for 50 years.
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She was in very
cis-heteronormative social spaces
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where she never had questioned
her identity
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or the identity of others.
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When I told her,
she was a bit taken aback,
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but she always made sure and insisted that
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She would act in the best way
she could with me.
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She puts in a lot of effort
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She is hardly wrong anymore
in using my preferred pronouns
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I made a request to change
my first name in 2019
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I filed a request
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to the town hall of where I lived.
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I took a dossier
which i had to fill
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with testimonies
from those closest to me
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to say that they were using
the first name Cami
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to address me.
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I asked my school
to write me a letter of support
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Then I submitted my application.
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I waited for a few months,
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it differs by town hall.
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And I received approval
to change my first name.
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The act of misgendering someone
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entails addressing this person
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with the wrong pronouns,
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Such as, gendering
a non-binary person
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who has explicitly said
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use neutral pronouns
like "they"
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and or gendering them
as feminine or masculine.
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Me personally,
I use feminine pronouns
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when in conversation
and neutral when written.
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But generally I have a
tendency to immediately verbalize
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that I prefer to be addressed
with feminine pronouns.
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After, if the person
doesn't say their own
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and you want to be sure
in gendering them correctly
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you can ask for their pronouns
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or wait for the person
to gender themselves in front of you
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so you follow their pronouns.
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In my older videos,
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There was lots of comments
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that invalidated our identities,
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denied our expressed gender
and our gender identity.
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Afterwards, I read very few
of these comments
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simply because I know
for the most part,
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They are malicious
or very, very ignorant
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and they will only cause me grief.
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I once participated in a report
in which it was said
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that it was just a phase,
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that it has just emerged
in the US over the last few years
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that it was connected to fashion,
unisex fashion, etc.
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That is completely false.
I also think it's
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a super white
and eurocentric point of view
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because, in many cultures
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there are many gender identities
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that were totally erased
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through colonization,
to put it simply.
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So often, we hear
that this is problematic
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and it's uncomfortable make people
identify, reidentify themselves, etc.
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but I think it's super important
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to be able to choose in the first place
how we identify with something,
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and to be able to
unidentify with an identity
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that was assigned to us
at random.
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I also think it's necessary
to build a community,
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to create a connection,
to know you're not alone,
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that there is support,
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that there are other people
who are just like us,
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who understand us,
who listen.
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If I could only say one thing,
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I think it would be
that even if you don't understand,
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you can alway support and stand by us.
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You can learn,
you can deconstruct your ideologies,
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You can relearn,
you can help those close to you
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even if you don't completely understand
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the entire scope
of their gender identity.
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A second thing,
is that all non-binary people
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have a unique way
of expressing their identity,
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There are people
who will do medical transitions,
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those who will take hormones,
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who will have operations,
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others who won't
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and that the method of how you
transition or not
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whether socially, medically, etc.
does not matter
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Our identity remains legitimate
It exists
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and there is many of us,
so many.