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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
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as a spectrum with two poles
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masculine and feminine
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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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And he helped me put words to my identity:
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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
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the word 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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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.
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He said he didn’t fully understand
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but reassured me he’d support me
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no matter what and
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that 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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and was married to 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
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the name Cami to address me.
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I asked my school to write me a letter of
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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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In fact, 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 pronouns
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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 pronouns “she/her”
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when speaking and
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neutral pronouns when writing.