Non Binary Quotes

Look, some people prefer they,” Alex said. “They’re non-binary or mid-spectrum or whatever. If they want you to use they, then that’s what you should do. But for me, personally, I don’t want to use the same pronouns all the time, because that’s not me. I change a lot. That’s sort of the point. When I’m she, I’m she. When I’m he, I’m he. I’m not they. Get it?” “If I say no, will you hurt me?” “No.” “Then no, not really.” She shrugged. “You don’t have to get it. Just, you know, a little respect.” “For the girl with the very sharp wire? No problem.” She must have liked that answer. There was nothing confusing about the smile she gave me. It warmed the office about five degrees.

Conformity requires us to minimize our differences for the greater good. We fear that if we don't conform, we will be abandoned, but there is no loneliness like having people only see you after you've erased yourself.

Bye bye binary. For gender, for sexuality, for everything. ... Lots of people can like lots of people. And could everyone please get over it and update their idea of normal.

Some gender non-conforming people are nonbinary, and some are men and women. It depends on each person’s experience. Two people can look similar and be completely different genders. Gender is not what people look like to other people; it is what we know ourselves to be. No one else should be able to tell you who you are; that’s for you to decide.

The scrutiny on our bodies distracts us from what's really going on here: control. The emphasis on our appearance distracts us from the real focus: power.

Gender non-conforming people face considerable distress not because we have a disorder, but because of stigma and discrimination. There is nothing wrong with us, what is wrong is a world that punishes us for not being normatively masculine or feminine.

Gender non-conformity is seen as something immature, something we have to grow out of to become adults.

God’s palette of shifting hues is vast, subtle, and beyond our comprehension. We humans are like those colors. Subtle, shifting, unique. Non-binary. Unable to be labeled or singled out. Beautiful and one-of-a-kind, and seen by God’s eyes alone.

Arguments against gender non-conforming people are about maintaining power and control. Most can be grouped into four categories: dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope.

How are you supposed to be believed about the harm that you experience when people don't even believe that you exist? The assumption is that being a masculine man or a feminine woman is normal, and that being "us" is an accessory. Like if you remove our clothing, our makeup, and our pronouns, underneath the surface we are just men and women playing dress-up.

Such a contrast to the other non-binary people I’ve seen online. Their smooth, hairless, acne-less faces, their trimmed hair that always seems perfect. These things I could never be. Because no matter how hard I will it my body isn't how I want to see myself.

Gender non-conforming people are not opportunisitic; we are oppressed.

This repression is something we first did to ourselves. We know how to do it so well to other people because we were the first testing grounds. We silenced our own differences, subdued our creativity, and toned down our own gender non-conformity in order to fit in. We thought fitting in would give us security—but is it security when someone else living their life differently unsettles us to our very core?

At some point during my research, I came across the term "gender fluid." Reading those words was a revelation. It was like someone tore a layer of gauze off the mirror, and I could see myself clearly for the first time. There was a name for what I was. It was a thing. Gender fluid. Sitting there in front of my computer--like I am right now--I knew I would never be the same. I could never go back to seeing it the old way; I could never go back to not knowing what I was. But did that glorious moment of revelation really change anything? I don't know. Sometimes, I don't think so. I may have a name for what I am now--but I'm just as confused and out of place as I was before. And if today is any indication, I'm still playing out that scene in the toy store--trying to pick the thing that will cause the least amount of drama. And not having much success.

Imagine everyone you encounter all day long telling you that you are not real and that there is something fundamentally wrong with you. Being constantly invalidated takes a toll: 40 percent of trans and gender non-conforming people have attempted suicide.

Oh, you are a non-binary bisexual chemist? Well this completely changes the atomic numbers of Carbon, Palladium, and Uranium.

People judge gender non-conformity because they are insecure about their identities. If they weren’t, then gender variance wouldn’t be so heavily policed.

There are many different ways to perform gender, and we should be open and encouraging of them.

It's a surreal experience to have your personhood be reduced to a prop.

The days that I feel most beautiful are the days that I am most afraid.

I don't identify with the words female or male. They are not my words. The space in which I have felt gendered female and transitioned to gendered male has been in the ways people have treated me.

There are some questions that have no answers. How do you express pain when you can't even locate the wound? It's like when you let a balloon loose into the sky. You don't know where it goes, but you know it went somewhere far away.

At a fundamental level, we are still having to argue for the very ability to exist. The truth is, I still cannot go outside without being afraid for my safety. There are few spaces where I do not experience harassment for the way I look.

The Soviet Union never ended. It reformed itself as the Woke West, a totalitarian liberal, rather than communist, nightmare. Big Brother became Non-Binary Elder Sibling.

We silenced our own differences, subdued our creativity, and toned down our own gender non-conformity in order to fit in.

The truth is, that we are in a state of emergency. In the past few years, we have seen an onslaught of legislation... targeting gender non-conforming people... Our communities are under attack. Regardless of whether these pieces of legislation pass, the fact that they're even being considered suggests just how disposable we are considered to be.

It's like being handed over a scantron sheet and demanded to paint a self-portrait on it. It's possible, of course, but why even bother when a canvas is within our reach? Is it really a choice, when you don't get to select the options you are given to begin with?

Binary paths belong in bygone past, all things civilized are non-binary.

The real crisis is not that gender non-conforming people exist, it's that we have been taught to believe in only two genders in the first place.

It is sad how often love and acceptance are conditional on how well we can conform. That even in the smallest acts of gender non-conformity, love can be lost.

I feel like my body is in a waiting room.

Computers are binary, not people. All people are non-binary, for life is non-binary.

[...]finché non siamo arrivati al cancello, al, al cancello, ho visto un treno e binari. Ma non un treno come ho visto quando arrivavo qui a Dachau, ma un treno con...per passeggeri, per gente [cane guaisce in sottofondo]. Non per, ehm, per cani o per ehm, cavalli. Ma questo, questo non può essere per noi, forse Gestapo arriva anche. No...il treno era per noi! E lì, prima di entrare su treno, tutti ricevevano una scatola. Una scatola da Croce rossa svizzera, e io l'ho acchiappata, e sono entrato su treno. Ho aperto la scatola; c'era molte cose, qualche sigaretta, un pezzo di pane, un pezzo di cioccolata. Marmellata. Oh, era un grande, grande tesoro per me. E questo, e il treno ha cominciato a muoversi. Un treno...la prima volta che entravo in un treno dove sta la gente. Persone viventi. E il treno ci ha preso; siamo andati per qualche giorno, non ricordo quanto, mi sentivo molto male, qualche volta un poco meglio, ma questo mi aiutava, quello che avevo. Ma io...dovevamo stare molto attenti; di notte potevo dormire, ma non dormivo per causa del mio tesoro quale avevo. Perché rubavano. Altra gente finiva tutto in una notte, o in un giorno, così non avevano; hanno rubato ad altri. Io stavo sdraiato sopra e tenevo. E qualche volta di notte acchiappavo qualcuno che voleva rubare il mio, il mio tesoro. Certo, se avevo molto più da dormir, mi sentirei molto meglio. Ma non potevo dormire, perché questo era più per me che dormire. Sapevo che con questo posso sopravvivere. Metamaus, Art Spiegelman

Gender is a story, not just a word. There are as many ways to be a woman as there are women. There are as many ways to be a man as there are men. There are as many ways to be non-binary as there are non-binary people. This complexity is not chaos, it just is. We do not need to be universal to be valid.

I fear that, although white feminism is palatable to those in power, when it has won, things will look very much the same. Injustice will thrive, but there will be more women in charge of it. Feminism is not about equality, and certainly not about silently slipping into a world of work created by and for men. Feminism, at its best, is a movement that works to liberate all people who have been economically, socially and culturally marginalized by an ideological system that has been deigned for them to fail. That means disabled people, black people, trans people, women and non-binary people, LGB people and working-class people. The idea of campaigning for equality must be complicated if we are to untangle the situation we're in. Feminism will have won when we have ended poverty. It will have won when women are no longer expected to work two jobs (the care and emotional labour for their families as well as their day jobs) by default.

Look, some people prefer they,’ Alex said. ‘They’re non-binary or mid-spectrum or whatever. If they want you to use they, then that’s what you should do. But for me, personally, I don’t want to use the same pronouns all the time, because that’s not me. I change a lot. That’s sort of the point. When I’m she, I’m she. When I’m he, I’m he. I’m not they. Get it?’ ‘If I say no, will you hurt me?’ ‘No.’ ‘Then no, not really.’ She shrugged. ‘You don’t have to get it. Just, you know, a little respect.’ ‘For the girl with the very sharp wire? No problem.’ She must have liked that answer. There was nothing confusing about the smile she gave me. It warmed the office about five degrees. I cleared my throat. ‘Anyway, we’re look

A lot more airtime is given to other people's use of us, rather than our own experiences. Our existence is made into a matter of opinion, as if our genders are debatable and not just who we are. In other words, there's been a lot of talk about us, but very little engagement with us.

Asking us to push away the very walls that are constantly crushing us into small, confined boxes is toxic.

Trans-Masculine - a person (usually female to male) who may or may not be non-binary but leans towards the masculine side of the gender spectrum.

So many women and non-binary people told me a similar story: they had people in their lives that they looked up to, who they thought were beautiful and assured and real, but they couldn't see that they themselves had qualities worthy of that admiration too; they could only see their own qualities in a positive light when they saw them reflected in someone else.

What I am sure of, though, is that accepting people outside the gender binary has less to do with the idea of specific non-binary genders, and a lot more to do with working away from the binary thinking in general. That we get better at seeing beyond us and them, valid and invalid, natural and unnatural, good and bad, and instead communicate the fullness of who we are to each other, respectfully, with compassion.

If I'm not wearing makeup or something androgynous, they see me as a boy. If I do dress more feminine or androgynous, they see a boy but a boy wearing eyeshadow or nail polish. It's easier for people to see what's on the outside than what's on the inside....You know how most people hear a song and only remember the thumping piano melody? I'm more than just that one instrument or one key. I exist in between notes, with backing vocals and lush harmonies.

I can't help it, it's what I feel. And I can't change it, nor can I explain it. I was just naïve enough to believe that the people closest to me would get it. I don't understand how a biological condition can end up defining how we are supposed to live - what kind of work we should do, how we should dress, how we should feel, whom to love? How to walk! It seems like the only way I can exist is if the world can decode me according to a gender. Anything else makes people uncomfortable and my existence becomes a freak show.

I exclusively use they/them and he/him pronouns now, and that is what I expect people to use when referring to me in the past. I know this sounds confusing, but I think it's okay to have a different set of rules for myself in relation to my gender and past than I do for others.

The male space is constructed as homogenous, monolithic, exclusionary and violent. The women's space is for the leftovers - women, trans people, non-binary people - and is required to be inclusive yet not in need of protection. This model also neatly summarises gender identity theory: the male name, male sport, male spaces, all are retained intact while female spaces are opened up.

Perhaps the most fundamental step you can take as a parent seeking to support your transgender or non-binary teen is to examine your own gender history. Everyone has a gender. Every one of us has been raised with particular ideas about gender instilled in us from the time we were born (and maybe even before!). Your experiences with gender impact your perceptions of your teen’s gender journey.

Certo che son belle le stazioni, non trovi? Soprattutto quelle di provincia, soprattutto quando il sole sta calando e i lampioni si sono già accesi anche se c'è luce nell'aria. Mi piacciono i binari che si perdono all'orizzonte, le poche persone che passeggiano sul marciapiede, che ondeggiano sulla linea gialla, che parlano poco, pochissimo per niente, perché hanno altro da fare. Aspettare. Aspettare. Aspettare.

We live in a culture that teaches us that "men" are the sexual aggressors and pursuers. We also live in a world where most women, trans, and non-binary folks have had negative experiences with men who are hitting on them. These factors tend to lead to some big gender differences for those exploring non-monogamy. Cisgender men often struggle when they first enter the world of non-monogamy. Within consensual non-monogamy (CNM) communities, most folks who sleep with cis men choose their partners based on referrals and endorsements. As in the world of business, it truly is who you know. Cis men who have been in the communities longer have dated and interacted with more people, and, therefore, have more word of mouth. It is an unfortunate reality that many, especially cisgender women, will not date men they don't already know about through their friends and communities. So, if you're a cis man exploring CNM, expect that it may take a while before you start seeing the kind of attention that others get. Focus on being kind, respectful, and honest. Respect the needs and boundaries of everyone with whom you interact. Spend lots of time getting to know other people simply as people - especially of your preferred gender to date - and form genuine friendships and connections with them free from any pressure to become sexual.

Woman is the opposite, the ‘other’ of man: she is non-man, defective man, assigned a chiefly negative value in relation to the male first principle. But equally man is what he is only by virtue of ceaselessly shutting out this other or opposite, defining himself in antithesis to it, and his whole identity is therefore caught up and put at risk in the very gesture by which he seeks to assert his unique, autonomous existence. Woman is not just an other in the sense of something beyond his ken, but an other intimately related to him as the image of what he is not, and therefore as an essential reminder of what he is. Man therefore needs this other even as he spurns it, is constrained to give a positive identity to what he regards as no-thing. Not only is his own being parasitically dependent upon the woman, and upon the act of excluding and subordinating her, but one reason why such exclusion is necessary is because she may not be quite so other after all. Perhaps she stands as a sign of something in man himself which he needs to repress, expel beyond his own being, relegate to a securely alien region beyond his own definitive limits. Perhaps what is outside is also somehow inside, what is alien also intimate — so that man needs to police the absolute frontier between the two realms as vigilantly as he does just because it may always be transgressed, has always been transgressed already, and is much less absolute than it appears.

«Gesù» disse «non avrò dunque il mio altoparlante?» «Se è stabilito che tu lo abbia lo avrai. Ma se lo avrai non sarà certo perché tu abbia indotto Dio a mutare quanto prestabilito per farti un favore personale. E Lo dovrai ringraziare solo perché ti avrà concesso la grazia di compiere una azione in accordo con la divina armonia che regola ogni cosa dell'universo. Don Camillo, tu cammini soprappensiero ed ecco che, nell'attraversare la ferrovia, finisci con un piede impigliato non si sa come in una rotaia e, per quanti sforzi tu faccia, non riesci a toglierti di là e nessuno ti può aiutare. La linea ferroviaria è doppia e ha due binari affiancati e tu non sai su quale dei due binari passerà il treno. E tu domandi aiuto al tuo Dio. E, poco dopo, ecco un fischio: il treno passa sull'altro binario. Tu sei salvo e ringrazi Dio di aver predisposto le cose in modo tale che tu non finissi impigliato nell'altro binario. Non puoi ringraziare Iddio di aver fatto passare il treno dove tu volevi che passasse. Il treno era già in viaggio, quando tu sei finito col piede nella rotaia. E il treno camminava sull'altro binario. Tu non puoi pensare che Dio, per favorirti, lo abbia tolto da un binario per metterlo in quello vicino. Lo devi perciò ringraziare soltanto perché il treno camminava nell'altra rotaia.» Don Camillo si inchinò e si segnò: «Se vincerò al totocalcio Vi ringrazierò non di avermi fatto vincere, ma perché ho vinto» disse. «E quindi non mi rimprovererai nel caso che tu non vincessi» concluse il Cristo sorridendo.

Beyond the obvious demands - an end to sexual violence, an end to the wage gap - feminism must be class-conscious, and aware of the limiting culture of the gender binary. It needs to recognise that disabled people aren't inherently defective, but rather that non-disabled people have failed at creating a physical world that serves all. Feminism must demand affordable, decent, secure housing, and a universal basic income. It should demand pay for full-time mothers and free childcare for working mothers. It should recognise that we live in a world in which women are constantly harangued into being lusted after, but punishes sex workers for using that situation to make a living. Feminism needs to thoroughly recognise that sexuality is fluid, and we need to dream of a world where people are not violently policed for transgressing rigid gender roles. Feminism needs to demand a world in which racist history is acknowledged and accounted for, in which reparations are distributed, in which race is completely deconstructed.

Our human perception of reality is made up by binary electromagnetic energy in the form of separated polarities: negative-positive, male-female, dark-light. Ordinary reality is a mono-dimensional arbitrary setting, which means that in order to be officially operative in this configuration, we need to release our multidimensional nature. This practically implies to let go of one polarity, so that one pole is allowed circulation in ordinary reality while the other is out of bound and remains in the non-ordinary or unconscious reality.

Non-time imposes on time the tyranny of its spatiality: in every life there is a north and a south, and the orient and the occident. At the extreme limit or, at the least, at the crossroads, as one’s eyes fly over the seasons, there is the unequal struggle of life and death, of fervor and lucidity, albeit one of despair and collapse, the strength as well to face tomorrow. So goes every life. So goes this book, between sun and shadow, between mountain and mangrove, between dawn and dusk, stumbling and binary. Time also to settle the score with several fantasies and a few phantoms. from “i, laminaria…

People tell ya to grow up… be a man… But what does that mean exactly? Doesn’t it mean to do the right thing… act forthrightly. Well… I think we need to give people money… UBI… Negative tax… whatever the hell you call it. And then parents say, hey, stay out of Politics, WE’RE NOT FROM AROUND HERE… Fine. Where are we from? Belarus? Okay. Well we’re from Belarus, why couldn’t we get UBI in Belarus? Parents say shut up, the President’s a dictator. Oh? Well, call me an idealist, but seems to me like you’re just looking for shit to complain about and run from your problems. A word of advice to potential immigrants. Stay away from this shit hole. These American schools tend to pump out sluts, alcoholics, and non-binary homeless philosophers.

All over the world in many cultures you’ll find gender non-conforming people – those who are traditionally third gender or gender-fluid or even agender. In some of these cultures, they are not only recognized, but also revered and honored, or treated as spiritual beings. In Hawaii, one can find the mahu, those who are biologically male or female, but having a gender identity between or encompassing both masculine and feminine, and whose social role is sacred. Some Native American people are two-spirit, while South Asia has their third gender called the hijra. Other cultures recognizing a third gender are Nigeria (yan daudu) , Samoa (fa’afafine), Thailand (kathoey), Mexico (muxe), and Tonga (fakaleiti). In yet other cultures, it is socially acceptable that some third genders are those who were assigned male, but live and behave as feminine and those who were born assigned female but live and behave as masculine.

The California Board of Education provides, through its virtual libraries, a book intended for kindergarten teachers to read to their students: Who Are You? The Kid’s Guide to Gender Identity by Brook Pessin-Whedbee.19 The author begins with a familiar origin story: “Babies can’t talk, so grown-ups make a guess by looking at their bodies. This is the sex assigned to you at birth, male or female.”20 This author runs the gamut of typical kindergarten gender identity instruction. Who Are You? offers kids a smorgasbord of gender options. (“These are just a few words people use: trans, genderqueer, non-binary, gender fluid, transgender, gender neutral, agender, neutrois, bigender, third gender, two-spirit….”) The way baby boomers once learned to rattle off state capitals, elementary school kids are now taught today’s gender taxonomy often enough to have committed it to memory. And while gender ideologues insist they are merely presenting an objective ontology, it is hard to miss that they seem to hope kids will pick a fun, “gender-creative”21 option for themselves.

Most of my friends put their preferred pronoun in their Instagram bios—he/she, him/her, they/their—but I respond to any and all of them. I like to think of it as collecting pronouns: the more I get, the more fun I’m having. To get the obvious out of the way, because that’s apparently important to people, I think of myself as post-gender. I was trying to figure out how to explain that because sometimes it’s a paragraph and sometimes it’s a term paper depending on who I’m talking to, and I have no idea who will be reading this in the aftermath. Then I noticed that one of my fellow passengers has a cat with him, and that’s perfect. When you visit a friend and find they have a cat, you just see it as a cat in all its pure catness, it doesn’t require further definition. You’ll probably get a name, and if you ask, whether it was born male or female, but even after you have that information you still don’t think of it any differently. It’s not a He-Cat or a She-Cat or a They-Cat. It’s just a cat. And unless the cat’s name has any gender-specific connotations you’ll probably forget pretty fast which gender it was born into. My name is Theo, and by that logic, I am a cat. What I was or was not born into has nothing to do with how I see myself. It’s not about going from one gender to another, or suggesting that they don’t exist. Some of my friends say that the moment you talk about gender you invalidate the conversation because you’re accepting the limits of outmoded paradigms, but I’m not sure I agree with that. I just think gender shouldn’t matter. If you’re a man, aren’t there moments when you feel more female, like when you’re listening to music, or your cheek is being gently stroked, or you see a spectacularly handsome man walk into the room? If you’re a woman, aren’t there moments when you feel more male, when you have to be strong in the face of conflict, or stand behind your opinion, or when a spectacularly beautiful woman walks into the room? Well, in those moments, you are all of those things, so why deny that part of yourself? For me, it’s not about being binary or non-binary. It’s about moving the needle to the center of the dial and accepting all definitions as equally true while remaining free to shift in emphasis from moment to moment. It’s about being a Person, not a She-Person or a He-Person or a They-Person. (...) When you go into a clothing store, you don’t just go to the “one size fits all” rack. You look for clothes that fit your waist, hips, legs, chest, and neck, clothes that complement your form and shape, and reflect not just how you see yourself but how you want to be seen by others. If it’s still not quite right, and you can afford it, you get the clothes tailored to fit exactly who you are. That’s what I’m doing. Post-gender is one term for it. Another might be tailored gender. Maybe bespoke gender. But definitely not one-size-fits-all. The world doesn’t get to decide what best fits who I am and how I choose to be seen. I do.

In the spread of gender-identity ideology, developments in academia played a crucial role. This is not the place for an extended critique of the thinking that evolved on American campuses out of the 1960s French philosophy and literary criticism into gender studies, queer theory, critical race theory and the like. I will merely focus on what some have dubbed 'applied postmodernism' and the form of activism, known as 'social justice', that seeks to remake humanity along ideological lines. And I will lay out the key elements that have enable transsexuality, once understood as a rare anomaly, to be converted into an all-encompassing theory of sex and gender, and body and mind. Within applied postmodernism, objectivity is essentially impossible. Logic and reason are not ideals to be striven for, but attempts to shore up privilege. Language is taken to shape reality, not describe it. Oppression is brought into existence by discourse. Equality is no longer achieved by replacing unjust laws and practices with new ones that give everyone the chance to thrive, but by individuals defining their own identities, and 'troubling' or 'queering' the definitions of oppressed groups. A dualistic ideology can easily be accommodated within such a framework. Being a man or woman – or indeed non-binary or gender-fluid - becomes a matter of finding your own gender identity and revealing it to the world by the medium of preferred pronouns. It is a feeble form of dualism to be sure: the grandeur of Descartes' 'I think, therefore I am' replaced by 'they/them' on a pronoun badge.

The purity message nestles neatly into the larger “us” versus “them” messaging I was raised with in the church. Those on the “positive” side of the binary are said to have access to God, Heaven, the community, and a happy life as one of “us.” Those on the “negative” side of the binary are said to be isolated from God, alone, and headed for Hell, a place of suffering reserved explicitly for “them.” Though one’s place on that binary is technically supposed to be determined by one’s belief system, let’s face it—you can’t see into another person’s heart and know whether she really believes these things or has just memorized a bunch of talking points. So if you want to assess who’s really a Christian and who’s not—and lots of people do—you need a proxy, some externally measurable quality that is deemed representative of the person’s internal commitment... ...Growing up, I heard a lot of talk about how evangelical Christians were better people than secular or other religious people (funnily enough, I now hear the exact same self-congratulatory messages from secular liberal people). But the truth was, I couldn’t always tell the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian. I saw both lie, both steal, both love, and both unselfishly give to others. But one tangible thing we could point to as evangelicals was that we didn’t have sex before marriage. There was that. There was always that. (10-11) “Don’t just be pure in body; you need to be pure in spirit . . .” Everything was just so intertwined with each other. It almost seemed like if you weren’t being physically impure, you were being spiritually and emotionally impure. Being “pure” became this really heavy, heavy weight to bear all the time. It almost made me go crazy questioning, “Well, is this impure? . . . Is this wrong? . . . Is this okay? . . . Is this going on?” (Holly) (12)

Selection on one of two genetically correlated characters will lead to a change in the unselected character, a phenomenon called 'correlated selection response.' This means that selection on one character may lead to a loss of adaptation at a genetically correlated character. If these two characters often experience directional selection independently of each other, then a decrease in correlation will be beneficial. This seems to be a reasonably intuitive idea, although it turned out to be surprisingly difficult to model this process. One of the first successful attempts to simulate the evolution of variational modularity was the study by Kashtan and Alon (2005) in which they used logical circuits as model of the genotype. A logical circuit consists of elements that take two or more inputs and transform them into one output according to some rule. The inputs and outputs are binary, either 0 or 1 as in a digital computer, and the rule can be a logical (Boolean) function. A genome then consists of a number of these logical elements and the connections among them. Mutations change the connections among the elements and selection among mutant genotypes proceeds according to a given goal. The goal for the network is to produce a certain output for each possible input configuration. For example, their circuit had four inputs: x,y,z, and w. The network was selected to calculate the following logical function: G1 = ((x XOR y) AND (z XOR w)). When the authors selected for this goal, the network evolved many different possible solutions (i.e. networks that could calculate the function G1). In this experiment, the evolved networks were almost always non-modular. In another experiment, the authors periodically changed the goal function from G1 to G2 = ((x XOR y) or (z XOR w)). In this case, the networks always evolved modularity, in the sense that there were sub-circuits dedicated to calculating the functions shared between G1 and G2, (x XOR y) and (z XOR w), and another part that represented the variable part if the function: either the AND or the OR function connecting (x XOR y) and (z XOR w). Hence, if the fitness function was modular, that is, if there were aspects that remained the same and others that changed, then the system evolved different parts that represented the constant and the variable parts of the environment. This example was intriguing because it overcame some of the difficulties of earlier attempts to simulate the evolution of variational modularity, although it did use a fairly non-standard model of a genotype-phenotype map: logical circuits. In a second example, Kashtan and Alon (2005) used a neural network model with similar results. Hence, the questions arise, how generic are these results? And can one expect that similar processes occur in real life?

La maternità non può viaggiare sui binari dello stereotipo, altrimenti rischia di diventare un concentrato di frustrazioni tenute a galla soltanto da una rete dei sensi di colpa e omertà.

Jesus is the one in whom you can place your trust, no matter how you identify. Jesus, our non-binary God. Jesus, whose pronouns might be he/him/his, but who we know to be more.

The reality that many gender non-conforming people cannot go outside without fear of being attacked is unacceptable.

The fact that doctors still perform non-consensual and non-medically necessary surgeries on intersex people just because they are different shows how binary sex—like binary gender—is a political construction. These people are not accidents or malfunctions; this is how human diversity works.

Some people who experience themselves as gender diverse but don't identify or express this in ways obvious to others recognize their cis privilege. They might use words like 'cis-ish' or 'cish' as well as non-binary terms to define themselves.

Pero ¿quién era yo ahora, un hombre o una mujer? Había luchado muy duro durante mucho tiempo para que me considerasen una mujer como las demás, pero siempre me había sentido excluida por mis diferencias. Nunca habría pensado que el passing iba a esconderme. Creía que me iba a permitir expresar la parte de mi ser que no parecía propia de una mujer. Sin embargo, no había podido explorar cómo era ser alguien que no estaba en un lado ni en otro. Simplemente me había convertido en un tío, en un hombre sin pasado. ¿Quién era yo ahora, un hombre o una mujer? Nunca tendría una respuesta mientras esas fuesen las dos únicas opciones; mientras me siguieran haciendo esa pregunta. (p. 374)

La vita è imprevedibile, non segue mai i binari, non si sa mai cosa ci riservi, ci trascina da un luogo all’altro, come oggetti trasportati dalla corrente, ci fa conoscere diverse persone, ci avvicina e ci allontana. Ci fa andare in contro a problemi, come navi verso gli scogli, ci fa attraversare tempeste, nubi di incertezza, venti gelidi di tristezza.

After all, the goal of non-binary identity is never to “pass” as a singular gender but rather, by our very existence, challenge and deconstruct the ways assumptions and presuppositions about gender altogether

A year might not feel like a long time, but years add up. Every single one has bought me closer to the person I am now.

I know more than one genius organizer, usually a Black or brown, sick or disabled woman or non-binary person who doesn't have a ton of disability community, who's casually told me that they'll be dead by the age of fifty. I respect that crip years are like dog years and sometimes we live really huge lives in short amounts of time. But I can't help but think that it doesn't have to be that way. We're soaked since birth in narratives that we will die young, that our lives aren't worth living, and we're up against everything from insurance denials to police trying to kill us who want to do the same damn thing. But as I hear my friends talking about how they're sure they'll die young, I wonder if changing the narratives around care might change their expectations.

My relationship was super gendered,” Tove said, “in the traditional misogynistic way, so sometimes I wonder if it’s trauma rather than me being actually non-binary.” “What do you mean by ‘actually’?” The question caught Tove off guard. Their gremlin perked up, looking to cause mischief, to paint all those flags red red red. Effie apparently spotted those pointy ears poking around the corner. “Sorry, I should’ve started by thanking you for telling me you’re non-binary. I only meant to ask why trauma isn’t enough. Trauma literally changes your brain chemistry. Of course it can be helpful to understand where things are coming from, but if you’re non-binary then you’re non-binary. There’s no lesser non-binary experience for someone who started questioning their gender as a result of trauma. That might even be a common experience. I dunno. Not an expert.

Given the world we live in, it’s unrealistic to expect that you, as a transgender/non-binary person, are going to feel love for your body all day, every day. However, there is always an opportunity to show kindness to our bodies. And one of the greatest ways to show kindness to ourselves is to pursue pleasure.

My parents assure me that God hates gays,” I elaborate when he says nothing. “They do not. In general, non-humans practice pansexuality. It doesn’t make sense to limit your options to one gender when some species that you might be sexually compatible with don’t have binary genders. The god Yah—that is the god that your parents worship—is non-binary. It would make no sense for them to have a preference for a specific gender pairing when they don’t have a binary gender themselves.

Here we may fruitfully turn to the work of those feminists who have attempted to (re)theorize sexual difference, to escape – however temporarily and partially – from the terms of a binary hierarchy in which one term is deprived of positive being. For woman to be a set of specificities rather than the opposite, or complement, to Man, man must become a set of specificities as well. If Man is singular, if he is a self-identical and definite figure, then non-man becomes his negative, or functions as an indefinite and homogeneous ground against which Man’s definite outlines may be seen. But if man himself is different from himself, then woman cannot be singularly defined as non-man. If there is no singular figure, there can be no singular other. The other becomes potentially specific, variously definite, an array of positivities rather than a negation or an amorphous ground. Thus the plural specificity of “men” is a condition of the positive existences and specificities of “women.”28 By analogy here, the specificity of capitalism – its plural identity, if you like – becomes a condition of the existence of a discourse of noncapitalism as a set of positive and differentiated economic forms.

The major aim of this social leveraging is to further lock in the power of the white/nonwhite binary. This exploitative logic does that quite well. Again, we see here the resiliency of white supremacy’s imposition and use of the black/white binary, and as part of white supremacy’s mode of reinforcing itself against the stereotypes of all non-white peoples. Asians

it is the first version—the multitude emerges in order to fill in the void of the binary signifier—which is “feminine,” i.e., which accounts for the explosion of the inconsistent multitude of the feminine non-All, and it is the second version which is “masculine”, i.e., which accounts for how a multitude is totalized into an All through the exception which fills in its void.

A future where disability justice won looks like queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, folks of colour, and women, girls, and nonbinary humans are living in a world where disability is the norm, and where access is no longer a question but a fait accompli. Gone are the days where our disabled bodies and minds are compared to the able-bodied and able-minded. We’ve flipped the script. We still like our non-queer, non–people of colour, non-disabled friends and we’ll have them at our fully accessible dance parties (which include comfy chairs and couches for our aches and pains, subwoofers that make you feel the vibrations, active listeners, and personal support workers, so we can fully enjoy our time out, and plenty of room as well as fully accessible bathrooms for wheelchair-users to dance, dance, and dance as well as pee with ease, and no stairs in sight and clear paths to sway or rest as we please). Because, please, did you really think this could go on, this able-bodied and -minded domination? It’s not that we’ve flipped the script to exert power and replicate oppressions on our able-bodied and able-minded friends, they just over time learned to not take up so much space and not be offended or feel left out if we don’t organize with them in mind. Actually, in our accessible/disabled future, binaries are broken. We fully live on and in the spectrum of possibilities of non-stigmatized minds and bodies. In this spectrum, we are fully connected to one another, which means that decolonization has happened and is still happening and that patriarchy has been toppled and much more. This interconnectedness that we now live daily means that sometimes our able-bodied and able-minded friends are learning every day, including from their mistakes, and are understanding in how many ways our differences and disabilities manifest. This also means that we have collectively built this future and thus have learned and understood differences and disabilities, and all of us are still doing that important work even when it is hard because this future world is ours! -KARINE MYRGIANIE JEAN-FRANÇOIS AND NELLY BASSILY, DAWN (DISABLED WOMEN’S NETWORK) CANADA

Pride Soc isn't just about doing queer staff,' Sunil continued, and that got him some laughs, 'It's not been about finding potential hook-ups. No, it's about the relationships we form here. Friendship, love and support while we're all trying to survive and thrive in a world that often doesn't feel like it was made for us. Whether you're gay, lesbian, bi, pan, trans, intersex, non-binary, asexual, romantic, queer, or however you identify - most of us here felt a sense of belonging while we were growing up, But we're all here for each other

Power can be defined as the ability to make a particular perspective seem universal. Control is how power maintains itself; anyone who expresses another perspective is punished. Arguments against gender non-conforming people are about maintaining power and control. Most can be grouped into four categories: dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope. These are strategies that people use to make the gender binary seem like a given, not a decision. It’s important to understand how they work in order to imagine otherwise.

I fundamentally reject the binary inherent within the structure of the inquiry itself. I embrace the non-dual nature of all reality present and flowing through all of creation.

I have come a long way from the brokenness of disability expected by the non-disabled world to an imagined space where the binary of broken and whole seems not to exist. I look forward to learning about the effects of this thinking and to discovering what is next.

When you spend much of your life under attack, or invisible, or both, it can be extremely valuable to create some spaces where you’re around people with similar experiences, and can relax and get some support. This is why it can be really important to have women-only spaces, online communities for people of color, Pride events for LGBTQ+ folks, dating apps just for bis, and non-binary safer spaces at an event. But whenever such spaces emerge, there are controversies over who gets to use them and who doesn’t. Much of this tends to come from more privileged people, for whom such spaces are a painful reminder of how we’re all implicated in a system which marginalizes people.

And "binary digits" simply means that all information is coded as patterns of 1's and 0's, "ons" and "offs," the shorthand for the polarities that make the universe what it is. Because there are only two choices in polarity, the code of bits is called a binary language. In the most basic way of thinking of matter and energy, this represents everything: matter and non-matter, positive and negative, yes and no, male and female. In the case of the bits themselves, it's 1's and 0's, where 1 represents "on" and 0 represents "off." Binary code is just as simple as that. But don't think that bits don't hold much power just because they're based on a simple idea. On the contrary: Binary language may be the most powerful in the universe.

A civilized world will grow out of our own heart, once we realize, there's no greater truth than the one of the heart - the heart which is neither black, nor white, the heart which is neither man, nor woman, nor non-binary, the heart which is neither wise nor foolish, the heart which is neither rich nor poor - the heart which is ever-free, ever-boundless.

Fat womxn can be feminine. But it isn’t the be all and end all. We can be other things too. We can be alternative. We can be androgynous. We can be gender non-conforming and non-binary. We can be butch. We can be casual. We can be all these things and STILL have the right to exist and feel socially acceptable within society.

Goody also noted that "many societies have no words that translate as sacred or profane and that ultimately, just like the distinction between natural and supernatural, it was very much a product of European religious thought rather than a universally applicable criterion."[citation needed] As Tomoko Masuzawa explains in The Invention of World Religions (2005), this system of comparative religion privileged Christianity at the expense of non-Christian systems. Any cosmology without a sacred–profane binary was rendered invisible by the field of religious studies, because the binary was supposed to be "universal".

Alpha, omega, beta, man, woman, non-binary, whatever... sometimes, you have to cry when the last cupcake's gone.

The endgame of these sociopathic social engineers isn't non-binary sexuality. It is non-binary reality with them defining and profiting from it

First off, when I say ‘male contraception’, we’re talking about birth control for folks with penises and testes. Not men. Just like how not all women have periods and not all menstruators are women, not everyone with a penis is a man and not all men have penises. Trans and non-binary folk exist!

The current socio-political climate, exacerbated by the media's addiction to falsifying our existence, has meant that being trans/non-binary/gender non-conforming in the twenty-first century feels like constantly trying to prove your existence... When we have to venture into the world, where we aren't heard, or listened to, it can feel like we are shouting against the wind.

So there’s a giant whistling void in our history across large swaths of the world, a void which might otherwise have yielded hundreds of years of custom, law, ceremony, ideas, and ideals about trans and genderqueer and non-binary lives. An artificial void, like there would be if you created the meanest black hole you can imagine – one that makes only that of which it disapproves of disappear completely.

Step into your true self what are you waiting for?

I am exactly who I AM. Respect my choice. Respect me.

Throughout this book, I frequently compare Black women’s experiences with those of White women. These groups’ struggles are connected by gender and yet are divided by different racial histories and privileges. I do not intend to imply that White women are primarily to blame for the oppression of Black women, or that I have forgotten the existence of Latina, Native American, Asian, and Pacific Islander women. It is simply that, in Western society, Black and White women have been placed in binary positions. White women have been idealized (through the lens of sexism), and Black women have commonly been denigrated as their opposite. Non-Black women of color tend to be racialized relative to the Black-White binary, placed in a hierarchy between the poles.22

When parents are able to engage with their transgender/non-binary children with acceptance, curiosity, and openness, a child becoming more of who they are is an invitation to get to know them on a deeper level.

Research shows that getting involved with advocacy and standing up for your rights as a transgender/non-binary person increase feelings of agency and pride.3

The gender thing wasn't what surprised me. A huge percentage of the homeless teens I'd met had been assigned one gender at birth but identified as another, or they felt like the whole boy/girl binary didn't apply to them. They ended up on the streets because - shocker - their families didn't accept them. Nothing says "tough love" like kicking your non-heteronormative kid to the curb so they can experience abuse, drugs, high suicide rates, and constant physical danger. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

She got the feeling that she might drown in gender fluids if she stepped inside, or that her own gender, not all that solid to begin with, might deliquesce like fungi and stain the pink counter stool, but that it might be good for her, just what she needed. She stared at the bright fruit painted on the side of the building and wondered if she should cut her bangs.

Agender Pride Day,” “International Asexuality Day,” “Bisexual Awareness Week,” “Genderfluid Visibility Week,” “Drag Day,” “Intersex Day of Remembrance,” “Non-Binary People’s Day,” “Trans Awareness Month,” “Pansexual & Panromantic Awareness Day,” and “Pride Month” all mark our calendars with cult celebrations.

Less to burn in the event a rogue gender-fluid camper decides to go on a flaming crusade against the binary, I guess