sweer sweer

I will begin with this: in my opinion, as fun as it is playing around with Dante being non-binary (especially being non-binary myself, I feel like that's appropriate to mention), in canon I don't actually believe they're exactly non-binary, more so intended to be genderless.

As far as I know, and I do know a lot, though not everything (corrections welcome), none of the past Project Moon's works had human characters that used they/them. Of note is also the fact that despite the employees you create in Lobotomy Corporation not having any genders assigned to them (they have been assigned genders in the Legacy version, but that feature was removed) when working with abnormalities they are explicitly referred to with "he/she did _____" instead of a general "they did _____". Going forward "they" has been mostly reserved for clearly non human characters with little to no noticable gendered traits if not just using "it".

No statement has been made about Dante's gender anywhere, as you have asked, nor has their gender really been acknowledged or questioned in game due to it obviously originally being written in Korean. It's a shame, but sadly understandable.

In this case it is interesting to point out Project Moon's English translation of Distortion Detective, which I think clearly shows the way they actually go about using they/them pronouns for characters and why. To give an example: the character Han Hee Joon gets introduced through Moses getting a phone call from them and her inner monologue, in which she describes them as an annoying prick and how she just wants them to zip up their mouth for once (or forever). This character later gets reintroduced in a way later chapter with an actual appearance and basic character info, which is where we finally get his gender and Han Hee Joon from then on only goes by he/him pronouns. (it doesn't help that Han Hee Joon looks like a slightly yassified Yesod IM SORRY but he does look very gender, on a reread of DD I was pleasantly surprised by Han Hee Joon using they/them pronouns because I faintly recalled he was male, but, well, yeah later on I understood why I correctly remembered him as male lmao)

Distortion Detective has been released over time in chapters, as opposed to Leviathan being a whole (very messily) complete narrative (it is why there are no translation quirks like in DD I assume), and similar to Limbus Company's story being released in Cantos. What I'm trying to say here is that the choice to give Dante gender neutral pronouns is likely more so to obscure their "actual" past identity rather than to give them a certain identity presently. It could also imply that, just like with Distortion Detective, the English translators, for whatever reason, were not given Dante's "actual" gender to also keep it a secret for now? Or because they're not sure themselves? Idk why they would specifically not specify a gender for the translation team, I don't actually think this could be true.

Either way, now onto the fun hypothetical stuff:

For Dante's view of their own gender identity I always imagined them just rolling with whatever they get referred to as by others (they're surprisingly chill with being dehumanized and being called a clockhead, alright). Over time, the more they continue to question who they are right now as opposed to who they were before, the more they distance themself from their dehumanization with the help of the Sinners and gang, but also keep the labels put on them in a way that they find their own comfort in.

In a fun discussion I had with another Dante enjoyer we thought of a fun scenario in which Dante asks the Sinners and Vergilius about what "non-binary" even is, with a lot of struggle in trying to actually explain it to them aside from "well, that's uh, you". Both of us happen to be non-binary and the idea is really funny to both of us. In the end Dante is Dante, and the bus crew trying their best to help them understand themself better even in such a weird way would be very cute....

Then, the fun part: they have to give up their head, basically everything that they are now. Due to working through who they are for such a long time and finding their own identity they find themself not being okay with giving up their life for the past Dante. But, in the end, they were always meant to be whoever it is they were before. Who they were born as, you could say.

I was thinking to myself some time ago on what possible non-binary themes and ideas Dante could have to them since, again, they're mostly intended to be genderless in canon, in my opinion. I very much don't trust Project Moon to be capable of writing a non-binary experience (cough cough they asked for the Wonderlab cast made up of all gender non-conforming characters to be given actual genders cough cough). The idea that stuck to me most was the thought of Dante's own perception of themself not mattering in the grand scheme of things, to most other people around them they will always be the past Dante. It's a very trans/non-binary theme, this idea of who you are VS what others want you to be, is it not? This further dehumanizing idea that what they end up making themself out to be will not matter once their head is off?

With the way that Project Moon writes characters, their writing and world is literally PERFECT for gender non-conforming characters like Dante to flourish, they have a perfect environment for so many trans and non-binary characters and their stories, but alas...

"Maybe pre-Dante was non-binary" as much as I dream that to be the case and highkey headcanon that, I highly doubt that PM will be brave enough to make a character with an actual face who uses they/them pronouns. I imagine once pre-Dante gets revealed — god forbid they happen to be male — there will be a wave of people quick to point at that and say "actually Dante was a guy/girl all along". Returning to my previous idea of past-Dante's identity VS present Dante's identity being a trans/non-binary theme, it's important to separate the two's identities before that sort of thing happens. In this case and this case ONLY pre-Dante not being non-binary is actually an interesting concept!

For non-english speaking circles all of this is a whole other can of worms (I interact very little with my own language speaking community because of that). At least here in the English side of the fandom do understand that what little Dante has in terms of NB representation is important to a lot of people.