Genderqueer
Genderqueer is an identity and umbrella term that encompasses queer and non-normative gender experiences and identities. Genderqueer could also be, and has turned into, its own gender identity. It is a term for people who are queer in the gender way, in a sense.
It is sometimes used as a similar term for non-binary, identifying as neither strictly, exclusively male, nor as strictly, exclusively female. Perhaps identifying as partially one or the other, both, or neither.
While the more modern and widely known definition of Genderqueer as a standalone gender identity has often been interchangable with Nonbinary, the term can and has also included binary people (Cisgender, Transgender, Other) as well. It can been used by anyone who feels they have a non-normative experience with gender or gender presentation.
Pronunciation
Definitions
- It’s about all of us who are genderqueer: diesel dykes and stone butches, leatherqueens and radical fairies, nelly fags, crossdressers, intersexed, transsexuals, transvestites, transgendered, transgressively gendered, and those of us whose gender expressions are so complex they haven’t even been named yet. - Riki Anne Wilchins, 1995[1]
- A term for people who feel that they have a queer or non-normative experience with gender, either through their gender identity, their gender presentation, or other experiences of gender. - LGBTA Wikia
History
Genderqueer was first used in the 1990s as "gender queer", used by anyone who experienced or expressed gender with the non-normative connotations of the Queer Movement. The earliest known use of "genderqueer" as a single word and identity is by Riki Anne Wilchins in the Spring 1995 newsletter of Transexual Menace to describe anyone who is gender nonconforming.
| “ | It's about all of us who are genderqueer: diesel dykes and stone butches, leatherqueens and radical fairies, nelly fags, crossdressers, intersexed, transexuals, transvestites, transgendered, transgressively gendered, intersexed, and those of us whose gender expressions are so complex they haven't even been named yet. More than that, it's about the gender oppression which affects everyone: the college sweetheart who develops life-threatening anorexia nervosa trying to look "feminine," the Joe Sixpack dead at 45 from cirrhosis of the liver because "real men" are hard drinkers. But maybe we genderqueers feel it most keenly, because it hits us each time we walk out the front door openly and proudly. |
| — Riki Anne Wilchins, 1995[2] |
By 1999 and 2000, online communities were using the term genderqueer as an umbrella to unite a number of non-binary identities and identifications. Over the next decade, genderqueer developed as a standalone identity with particular connotations.
Related Terms
See Also
Gallery
Flags
The main Genderqueer flag was the 3rd and final version of Marilyn Roxie's design, created in June 2011 (with a true color update in June of 2012), modified from version 1.0 in June 2010, and 2.0 in September 2010.[3] The meaning of the colors are as follows:
Lavender, The mixture of blue and pink (traditional colors associated with men and women, present on the transgender pride flag) as lavender is meant to represent androgynes and androgyny. Also represents the “queer” in genderqueer, as lavender is a color that has long been associated with “queerness”, including gay, lesbian, and bisexual communities. White, Meant to represent agender identity, congruent with the gender neutral white on the transgender pride flag. Dark chartreuse green, The inverse of lavender; meant to represent those whose identities which are defined outside of and without reference to the binary.
Another early proposed Genderqueer flag was made on September 8, 2010. It was submitted to the tumblr GenderqueerID by the now-deactivated Das-Deutschtard.[4] There are more colors to represent how there are a lot of things that fall under “genderqueer”. The meanings are as follows: Purple for people who are a mix of male and female. Green for people who identify as neither male nor female. Blue for people who are transmasculine, so feel more male than female, but are not identifying as men. White for neutrois/agender/people completely outside the binary. Pink for transfeminine, people who feel more female than male, but are not identifying as women. Grey (up for debate) for genderfluids. The creator was thinking of orange, but it didn’t work, and didn’t know what color other than blue signifies fluency. Rainbow was considered but thought it would be weird on a strpe.
Final Design Genderqueer Flag by Marilyn Roxie 3.0, June 2011
First Proposed Flag 1.0, June 2010
Second Proposed Flag 2.0, September 2010
Another early proposed Genderqueer flag, September 2010
An alternate Genderqueer flag made by unknown, 2015
Color adjusted Genderqueer flag by whimsy-flags, 2020
An alternate Genderqueer flag by reddit user Memedurp, April 2021
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Combinations
Nonbinary Genderqueer Genderfluid
Transnonbinary Genderqueer
Polyromantic Pansexual Genderqueer
Genderqueer Trans Intersex +
Genderqueer Neutrois
Genderqueer Androgyne
queer,_Trans,_Intersex_or_Plus_-_Ap.png)
Coining
Transsexual Menace, In Your Face (1995)
| “ | The fight against gender oppression has been joined for centuries, perhaps millennia. What's new today, is that it's moving into the arena of open political activism. And nope, this is not just one more civil rights struggle for one more narrowly-defined minority. It's about all of us who are genderqueer: diesel dykes and stone butches, leatherqueens and radical fairies, nelly fags, crossdressers, intersexed, transexuals, transvestites, transgendered, transgressively gendered, intersexed, and those of us whose gender expressions are so complex they haven't even been named yet. More than that, it's about the gender oppression which affects everyone: the college sweetheart who develops life-threatening anorexia nervosa trying to look "feminine," the Joe Sixpack dead at 45 from cirrhosis of the liver because "real men" are hard drinkers. But maybe we genderqueers feel it most keenly, because it hits us each time we walk out the front door openly and proudly. And that's why these pages are only going to grow. We're not invisible anymore. We're not well behaved. And we're not going away. Political activism is here to stay.
So get out. Get active. Picket someone's transphobic ass. Get in someone's genderphobic face. And while you're at it, pass the word: the gendeRevolution has begun, and we're going to win. |
| — Riki Anne Wilchins, In Your Face 1995 |
Other
A genderqueer/non-binary symbol was created by JohnathanJLR in July 2012.[5][6]It is similar to the male or female symbols, but it used an X on the end. The use of the X denounces both binary genders. The letter X is a common symbol of the non-binary, in pronouns and titles. The position, pointing straight up, also deviates from the positions of the male and female symbols.
1990s button, The Canadian Lesbian & Gay Archives
- Genderqueer Symbol.webp
A Genderqueer Gender Symbol made by JohnathanJLR
