Cait the Proud Trans Woman's Post

And I guess I'll end where I started. With my work educating cishet people.

I think what I'll be saying from now on is something like this (not looking specifically for critique, but if you have some, I'll hear it - this isn't a script, but a meandering sort of stream-of-consciousness so, exact wording wouldn't be the same)

"One thing I don't know, and that is what it feels like to be nonbinary. My own gender is quite binary - note, not my expression, but my identity - so I don't understand what it feels like to be outside that binary.

"What I do know is what my nonbinary friends have told me: that none of them have the same understanding of what it means. And this makes sense. There are many ways to be a woman; many ways to be a man. It stands to reason there must be infinite ways to be neither, or both, or somewhere else off on the Z axis of the chart.

"We've been trained to believe that gender is a one-dimensional trait. It's either male, or female. There's only an X axis. What nonbinary people have taught me is that gender has multiple dimensions, and people can exist at any point on any of those axes. Or eschew the whole system entirely.

"Just remember that a nonbinary person can look literally like anyone you've ever met. Their gender expression may seem quite binary to you - but that doesn't mean anything about their identity. Decouple the idea of being able to tell someone's gender from the idea of being able to see what clothes they're wearing.

"In the end, be respectful. Listen to what people have to tell you, and use the pronouns (or lack thereof) they want to have used. And be prepared to discover a universe of different genders, each beautiful and valid."