Author(s): The Trevor Project
Published: July 13, 2021
Report Intro/Brief:
““Nonbinary” is a term used to describe people whose gender identity does not fit within the traditional construction of gender as a binary choice between exclusively male or exclusively female. Although transgender and nonbinary identities can overlap, they are not synonyms that can be used interchangeably. Like the term transgender, nonbinary can be a distinct gender identity, or it can be an umbrella term that refers to other identities outside of the gender binary, such as genderfluid, genderqueer, or agender. While nonbinary people have existed and expressed their genders throughout human history, public awareness of nonbinary people has grown exponentially in recent years. A recent poll found that 35% of Generation Z (those ages 13 to 21 in 2018) know someone who uses gender-neutral pronouns.
Twenty states and the District of Columbia now allow citizens to express a nonbinary identity on their driver’s license, and 14 states allow citizens to indicate a nonbinary identity on their birth certificate. The U.S. State Department also recently announced policy changes to make it easier for transgender and nonbinary people to change the gender marker on their U.S. passport, in preparation for offering a third gender option in the future. In celebration of International Nonbinary People’s Day on July 14th, this brief uses data from The Trevor Project’s 2021 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health to examine the diversity of nonbinary youth.
One in four LGBTQ youth (26%) in our sample identified as nonbinary
An additional 20% reported that they are not sure or are questioning if they are nonbinary. While nonbinary identities have often been grouped under the umbrella term of “transgender,” our data show that only 50% of youth who identified as nonbinary also identified as transgender; an additional 20% were not sure or questioning if they were transgender.”
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