IN FOCUS Discussion: International Nonbinary Day

International Nonbinary Day is celebrated around the world every year on July 14th. It's an occasion to lift up nonbinary members within the LGBTQ community. According to the Human Rights Campaign, the term "nonbinary" describes someone who does not identify exclusively as a man or a woman.

A nonbinary person may identify as being both a man and a woman, somewhere in between, or completely outside of these categories. While many people also identify as transgender, not all non-binary people do. Nonbinary can also be used as an umbrella term encompassing identities such as agender, bigender, genderqueer, and genderfluid.

Some pronouns that nonbinary people use are they/them, xe/xim/xir, ze/zim/zir, and sie/hir. Some notable people who are nonbinary are Demi Lovato, Elliot Page, Sam Smith, Janelle Monae, Jonathan Van Ness, Amandla Stenberg, Indya Moore, Bob the Drag Queen, and Alok Vaid-Menon.

Nick Arteaga (he/him/they them) and Bee Nanase Barbera (they/them/fae/faer), two local nonbinary people joined ABC4's Rosie Nguyen on the CW30 News at 7 p.m. They explained the difference between cisgender, transgender, and nonbinary. They also talked about the history of nonbinary people, the statistics about nonbinary people in the U.S., gender as a spectrum that is not linear, and the pronouns that nonbinary folx use.

Christopher Malan (they/them), co-chair of the Transgender Education Advocates of Utah discussed whether being nonbinary means being nonconforming by nature, the similarities within bisexual culture and nonbinary culture, how often nonbinary language is missing in policy, and how that can make things confusing for nonbinary folx.

M (they/them), a local nonbinary person shared how parents and teachers can support children who come out as nonbinary, their response to people who may be reluctant to use they/them pronouns because they believe it's not proper English, why it's hurtful to approach someone who is nonbinary in the bathroom, and some ways that businesses and employees can be more inclusive of nonbinary people.

Barbera compiled the following list of nonbinary educational resources:

Utah-Based Organizations:
ACLU of Utah (https://www.acluutah.org/)
Encircle (https://encircletogether.org/)
Equality Utah (https://www.equalityutah.org/)
PFLAG Utah -- branches in SLC, Logan/Cache County, Provo/Utah County, St. George (https://pflag.org/chapter/pflag-salt-... / https://pflag.org/chapter/pflag-logan... / https://pflag.org/chapter/pflag-provo... / https://pflag.org/chapter/pflag-st-ge...)
University of Utah LGBT Resource Center (https://lgbt.utah.edu/)
Utah HRC (https://www.hrc.org/in-your-area/utah)
Utah Pride Center (https://utahpridecenter.org/)

Books:
A Quick and Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns by Archie Bongiovanni and Tristan Jimerson
Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us (Revised+ Updated) by Kate Bornstein
Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation by Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman
Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg
You and Your Gender Identity: A Guide to Discover by Dara Hoffman-Fox
Life Isn't Binary: On Being Both, Beyond, and In-Between by Meg John-Barker and Alex Iantaffi
Continuum by Chela Man
Sissy: A Coming of Age Story by Jacob Tobia
Beyond the Gender Binary by Alok Vaid-Menon
In Their Shoes: Navigating Non-Binary Life by Jamie Windust
They/Them/Their: A Guide to Nonbinary and Genderqueer Identities by Eris Young

Websites:
https://utahpridecenter.org/resource-...
https://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/202...
https://genderqueerid.com/
https://genderspectrum.org/
https://www.mypronouns.org/
https://www.transgendertraininginstit...
https://letsqueerthingsup.com/categor...
https://www.thetrevorproject.org/reso...