Recovery

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".

It’s okay to say no! I say no to social events and work opportunities and personal requests because I don’t have the time or energy, and it’s always been okay. If people don’t accept your boundaries, that’s more about them than it is you.

You are not alone.

You are strong.

You are beautiful.

You are worthwhile.

You deserve good things.

You matter.

You are important.