House Bill 2 has brought our state’s transphobia into the spotlight, but we should recognize that this legislation is also a prejudiced response to the notable growth in recent years in the number of people who identify as “genderqueer,” or “non-binary,” distinct from the usual categories of “male” and “female.”
This increased visibility has heightened instances of intolerance and discrimination. In the 2008 National Transgender Discrimination Survey, 32 percent of all people who identify as non-binary have been physically assaulted, 31 percent have experienced police harassment and 21 percent live on less than $10,000 annually. In certain circles, there’s a profoundly negative sentiment toward the very concept of “non-binary” gender identities. It’s easy to find people in an internet comment section claiming that “there are only two genders” and that those who identify otherwise are “mentally ill.” However, historical accounts and scientific research indicate otherwise.
The concept of non-binary genders is neither a recent one nor a distinctly Western one. Over 130 American Indian tribes have historically recognized some form of non-binary gender, collectively known under the label of “Two Spirit.” Native Hawaiians have the third expression of self called “Mahu,” while the Buginese people of Indonesia have five different genders: male, female, trans-feminine “calabai,” trans-masculine “calalai” and pangender “bissu.”
Even with regard to anatomical sex, human beings are not actually completely dimorphic. According to one study in the American Journal of Human Biology, up to 2 percent of all live births qualify as “intersex,” distinct from the two biological sexes with which we are more familiar. If the sex of human beings is not entirely dimorphic, it is not too far of a stretch to suggest that gender might not be entirely dimorphic either.
If we examine the differences in the brain between people of different genders, we’ll find that our minds are even less dimorphic than our bodies. In the study “Sex beyond the genitalia: The human brain mosaic,” published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers found that the human brain, rather than being sexually dimorphic, consists of a mosaic of “male” and “female” attributes, with only around 6 percent being completely “male” or “female.”
Even beyond the historical precedents for non-binary genders, and the scientific evidence against total gender dimorphism, throwing a fit over someone having an unorthodox gender identity is silly. If someone identifies as non-binary, it doesn’t really affect anyone but themselves. The sort of people who spend their time complaining about the existence of non-binary people should consider complaining about things that actually impact their lives and deserve their disdain, like gaggles of dawdlers who take up the whole sidewalk and don’t let other pedestrians through, or contagious sorts who don’t cover their mouths when they cough.
All in all, just treat non-binary people with the same respect you would afford anyone else, and use their preferred names and pronouns. The latter is not as difficult as it might seem: most of the planet Earth, male, female or non-binary, would be fine with being referred to by the singular “they.” If someone wants to protest the use of the singular “they” to refer to a non-binary person, they can take it up with the word’s consistent use as a gender neutral pronoun since the 14th century. In William Shakespeare’s words, “There’s not a man I meet but doth salute me / As if I were their well-acquainted friend” — an experience I welcome, as long as they let me pass on the sidewalk.
