My gender cannot be categorized because it is constantly in flux and shifts depending on context.
Ultimately I would like to be seen as a person outside of the rubric of gender. Words only approximate me. Like grabbing a hand full of water from a running stream - my gender it finds the cracks and spills out.
Foremost I am ALOK, complex and multifaceted. So much of that vital nuance gets lost in extrapolating me to categories which require minimizing difference for the sake of coherence and convenience. I am less concerned with being known as I am being experienced. I use categories (and try to not let them use me) because they are currently the only way to address how I experience disproportionate vulnerability and they allow me to build affinity with others.
I use “gender non-conforming” to indicate how I visibly defy society’s understanding of what a man or woman should look like. GNC people are systematically policed by gender norms to maintain the fantasy that men and women look uniform.
I use “non-binary” to indicate how I am outside of the Western constructed gender binary of man/woman. There are infinite non-binary genders, we are not merely some third option for leftovers.
I use “trans” because I was coercively assigned male at birth and made a decision to transition/transcend elsewhere.
I use “gender fluid” because my gender is not static, it shifts across time and space. Presenting what society deems as “masculine,” doesn’t invalidate the legitimacy of my femininity and vice versa.
I use “transfeminine” because I most frequently present in a way society labels “feminine” as people continue to read my body as “masculine. I therefore experience distinct harm for the presumed dissonance between my “masculinity” and “femininity.”
I use “queer” as a political term to challenge how/why I have to have a fixed gender or sexuality category to begin with when I am so much more than that.
