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Even if you don’t get it
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you can still support and
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respect our identity.
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It’s valid and it exists.
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Testimonials: Non-binary Identities
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I’m Camille, 22, non-binary
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and I’m here to talk about non-binarity.
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Non-binary is an umbrella term
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for all gender identities
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that aren’t strictly male or female.
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It could mean being no gender (agender)
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or it could be all fluid identities,
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as if we were imagining gender as a
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spectrum with two poles mas. and fem.
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We can move on this spectrum like a cursor
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So, this includes people who are
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gender-fluid, demi-gender, pangender, etc.
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I never really identified with femininity.
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At 18,
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I started questioning my gender identity.
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I was dating a trans man.
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who I spent some time with
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And he helped me put words to my identity
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which is non-binary.
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I think because he had access to
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more information than I did
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he was able to help me to find the word
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of my identity.
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Gender identity is about who we are
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the gender you feel, live and experience.
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Gender expression, on the other hand,
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is how we present that identity to others.
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It's the way that we express this identity
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For example, someone can identify as a man
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so he is a man.
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He can have a feminine gender expression,
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with many makers considered
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feminine in society.
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Like Bilal Hassani, who is a man
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but has a feminine gender expression.
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When I came out as non-binary,
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I told my parents
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I wanted to change my name.
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I was 20, so that was two years ago.
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My mom was chill,
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she was already very aware of gender topic
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She is very open-minded,
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and made me feel safe.
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My dad was a bit trickier.
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I waited longer to tell him and
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ended up doing it over text.
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Because it felt easier that way.
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And he responded well and he said
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he didn’t fully understand but
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reassured me he’d support me
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it didn’t change anything for him.
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He still loved me the same
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My grandma had a harder time with it.
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Because it was just so far from her world.
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She grew up in the countryside,
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later moved to Paris.
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She lived with my grandpa for 50 years.
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She was part of a cis-heteronormative way
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where she never questioned her own identity
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or anyone else’s.
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So, when I told her about it,
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she was a bit taken back.
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But she’s always tried her best
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to respect me
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She makes a huge effort,
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and she hardly ever messes up my name.
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I applied to change my name in 2019.
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I submitted my request
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to the city town hall where I lived.
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I picked up a file that I filled out
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with statements from friends and family
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confirming they used the name Cami
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to address me.
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I asked my school to write me
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a letter of support and so on.
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Then I submitted my application
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and waited a few months.
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It varies depending on the city,
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and I was accepted for the name change.
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Misgendering someone means
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using the wrong pronouns for them.
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So misgendering a non-binary person
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who explicitly said to use neutral pron.
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such as “they/them”, but someone refers
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to them as “he” or “she” instead
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Personally, I use “she/her” when spaeking
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and neutral pron. when writing.
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I usually tend to say it straight away.
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I prefer to be addressed with
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feminine pronouns when speaking.
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If the person doesn't say it and
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you want to be sure about someone’s pron.
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you can always ask,
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or just wait and see how they refer to
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themselves and follow their lead.
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In previous videos, there were a lot of
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comments invalidating our identities,
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denying our gender expressions
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and gender identities.
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I don’t read those comments very much,
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because I know most of them
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come from ignorance or just plain malice
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and they’d only upset me.
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I once participated in a documentary
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where you could hear people say that
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non-binary was just a trend,
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that it only appeared in the U.S.
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about 10 years ago
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It was tied to fashion, unisex, etc.
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But that’s completely false and I think
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it’s also a very white,
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Eurocentric point of view,
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because in many cultures,
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many gender identities were totally
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erased during colonization, quite simply.
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Quite often, we hear that it's problematic
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or awkward to keep creating
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new gender labels to identify
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and re-identify ourselves, etc.
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But I think it's really important to
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be able to identify with something,
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even if we reject the one
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we were assigned at birth.
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It’s also necessary to get together
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in a community to create a bond.
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To know that you're not alone.
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There's support.
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There are other people who are like us,
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who understand us, who listen to us.
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If I had just one thing to say,
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it would be this:
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Even if you don't get it,
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you can still support and respect people.
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You can learn yourself,
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challenge old ways of thinking,
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you can educate yourself,
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and help those around you.
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Even if you don’t fully grasp
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what their gender identity means to them.
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One last thing,
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every non-binary people
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express their identity differently.
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Some will undergo medical transitions,
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take hormones, have surgeries,
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while others will not.
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Someone transitions socially, medically...
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Our identity remains legitimate
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and it exists. And there are many of us.