(((I Will Outlive)))

I've been thinking about that post I shared the other night about how genderqueer is a misunderstood and ignored identity...and the reason really is the queerphobia.

There are, and have been for as long as I've been active in the community, people who are very against the existence of genderqueer as an umbrella term.

Genderqueer used to be the most common umbrella term for gender identities outside of the binary and for all forms of gender nonconformity. It's on this website that I really watched that change, and it changed because of people who were anti-queer and who didn't want to be associated with queerness.

I was reminded of this not too long ago, when I went searching for the original post where the first nonbinary flag was created. The nonbinary flag was created in February 2014, and I made this blog during that same week as a response to the anti-queer attitudes on this website around that time.

The nonbinary flag was created by a person who was against genderqueer as the umbrella term, because genderqueer was too "political" and contains a "slur".

The flag creator went so far as to claim that it was a "myth" that genderqueer was ever an umbrella term.

No, really: here's the post. (And for those who have never seen it, here is the original nonbinary flag post.)

Queerphobia is the reason that genderqueer identity is ignored and misunderstood. That, and the fact that most people are completely unaware of the history and origin of the term.

And it's kind of bizarre, because it's recent-in-my-life-time-history and I'm not even 30.

Genderqueer was coined in the 90s, and the person who coined the term is still alive and has a twitter account and blogs??

GenderQueer: Voices From Beyond the Sexual Binary was published almost 20 years ago. (And is now in re-print, so one no longer has to hunt down a used copy anymore!!)

And yet the general attitude is that genderqueer is a new invention. And the same folks seem to believe that the reclamation of queer is a brand new idea and not a deliberate action that has already been taken by countless queer people for decades.

Genderqueer does function as a specific gender identity label, and it is one of the many labels I use for myself. This isn't the original usage of the term, but one that has developed since it's creation.

Genderqueer is an umbrella term, a very large umbrella term, and this is by design; it is intended to encompass every form of transness, every kind of gender nonconformity, every complex and creative gender identity, and every queer experience of marginalization based upon gender and sex.

The definitions that I see attributed to the word genderqueer are usually far more narrow than that, including simplified definitions that I myself have given the word so that it would be easier for others to understand; the way that the term is used today is not how it used to be used, which is kind of disappointing actually. No other word that we have functions in that way, as a broad and proud banner for all queer people who are marginalized because of gender and sex.

Perhaps the broad inclusiveness of the term is why it's grown so unpopular.

(Image description: a square image with a genderqueer pride flag on the left side and black text on a white background on the right side, the two sides are separated by a black line border. The text on the right side says “In 2010, Marilyn Roxie set out to design a pride flag to represent the genderqueer community. The most common version of the flag (pictured left) was created in June 2011, and later updated to web safe colors in June 2012. The colors of the flag were selected to represent different elements of genderqueer identities. Lavender, a mixture of the blue and pink found on the trans flag, represents androgyny and queerness. White represents gender neutrality and agender identity, similar to the white stripe on the trans flag. Chartreuse green, the inverse of lavender, represents identities entirely outside of and separate from the binary genders.”)

Finally, an informational post on genderqueer identity!

(Image description: ten square images with blue, white, and lavender gradient backgrounds; every image has a border across the top and bottom with a thin black line framed by a black diamond on each side and every image also has black text.

1) Large centered text that reads "A Brief Introduction to Genderqueer History and Identity", below that is the instagram handle "@genderqueer.positivity"

2) "Genderqueer is a term that was created in the mid-1990's to cover a wide range of Queer experiences of gender, as well as marginalized gender identities and expressions. In its earliest usage, "gender queer" was a term for those who were Queer specifically because of gender, rather than sexuality."

3) "The earliest usage of "gender queer" comes from the April/May first edition of the zine GenderTrash From Hell, edited by Xanthra Phillippa Mackay." Below this is a quote from page 19 of the zine reading "gender queers & gender outlaws are what we & only we are, since lesbians & gays seem to think that queer means lesbian/gay (& sometimes bi) only".

4) "The terms "gender queer" and "gender trash" would appear in another set of zines two years later, the In Your Face newsletters published by Riki Anne Wilchins. It's unclear if Wilchins drew inspiration from the GenderTrash zines, or if she created these terms independently; however, she claims to have coined the term "genderqueer" and she is the one most commonly credited with creating and defining the term."

5) A quote that reads "I coined the term “genderqueer” back in the 1990s in an effort to glue together two nouns that seemed to me described an excluded and overlooked middle: those of us who were not only queer but were so because we were the kind of gender trash society couldn’t digest." Smaller text below attributes the quote to Riki Wilchins, from an advocate.com article titled "Get to Know the New Pronouns: They, Theirs, and Them"

6) A second quote that reads "It's about all of us who are genderqueer: diesel dykes and stone butches, leatherqueens and radical fairies, nelly fags, crossdressers, intersexed, transexuals, transvestites, transgendered, transgressively gendered, intersexed, and those of us whose gender expressions are so complex they haven't even been named yet." This quote is also attributed to Riki Wilchins and comes from the first edition of a gender activism newsletter called In Your Face, published in Spring 1995.

7) "Today, Genderqueer is both an umbrella term and a specific gender identity label. As an umbrella term, Genderqueer still covers a wide range of Queer experiences of gender. As the basis for a gender identity, Genderqueer can be used as a label by any person who feels that their gender is best described as Queer, or anyone who actively chooses to Queer their own gender identity and/or expression."

8) "Genderqueer is used by some individuals to describe having a gender identity outside of the male/female binary. However, it is also possible to have a binary or binary-aligned gender and be Genderqueer. Genderqueer can be used as a stand-alone label or as one of multiple gender-related labels used by an individual."

9) This slide has text along the bottom that says "This is the Genderqueer pride flag; this version was created by Marilyn Roxie in 2011." Above that is a square image of a Genderqueer pride flag on the left side; the flag has three stripes of the same width: a lavender stripe on top, a white stripe in the center, and a chartreuse green stripe on the bottom. To the right of the flag is text which describes what each color represents. Lavender represents "queerness and androgyny", white represents "gender neutrality and genderlessness", and green represents "genders unrelated to the binary".

10) The last slide has a stock photo in the top/center of the image; in the stock photo a person stands on a staircase with beige walls and a white ceiling in the background, holding a large genderqueer pride flag up to a natural light source which isn't visible in the picture, the person wears khaki pants, but otherwise can't be seen from behind the flag. Below the stock photo is text that reads "Genderqueerness is radically inclusive, deeply personal, fiercely political, and beautiful." After the sentence is the outline of a black heart emoji.)

Anyway, here is your regular reminder that the term genderqueer was coined in the 90s; the creation of the term is generally credited to trans activist, author, and academic Riki Anne Wilchins. The label was very popular in queer and trans zines at the time.

Genderqueer identity and culture existed well before this hellsite did and will continue to exist long after tumblr has gone down in flames.

We’re here, we’re genderqueers, and we won’t be erased.