Nonbinary Quotes

“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.”
― Jeff Garvin, Symptoms of Being Human

“So here it is. My friends call me he, or they. The government and most of my family call me she. The media calls me she, because I don’t trust them enough to request that they do anything else. My lovers call me sweetheart. Or baby. Somewhere in all of that I find myself.”
― ivan coyote

“And it was hard to explain. That they didn't want to be a man, but that they had never felt quite right as a girl. That they only started to feel really okay when they understood they could be their own thing. That they could exist in a space that was all their own, that they could shift and adjust until it felt right. They had settled on nonbinary feeling right for them, even though they knew others like them had their own names that felt right to their own experiences. And that was comforting too. That each person could choose what brought them closer to belonging, the power in that. Knowing that one day, people might discover even better words for it. That there was only ever freedom in continuing to find new names for who we were, who we could be.”
― Anita Kelly, Love & Other Disasters

“Male? female? both?
No one's ever asked me that question, I see myself as neither. I'm something different all together.”
― E.M. Hamill, Dalí

“What is the utility of "body positivity" if it only seeks to provide one with a false sense of confidence rather than to liberate all from that which cages the body?”
― Da'Shaun L. Harrison, Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness

“Being trans is fine, it's the world that's the problem. And that's what people don't seem to get. There are loads of us as well. Whether you make room for us or not, whether you accept us or not, whether you include us or not, we're still going to be here. And us existing doesn't take anything away from you or make your life more difficult. Making space for me doesn't mean you have to give up your seat.”
― L.D. Lapinski, Jamie

“Definitely a play-to-pay, saved us a lot of bucks. There's just a small catch.'
Beverly and Krak eyed Steve, wary of the catch. A catch in these times was seldom an overly convenient thing.”
― Mark Mumm, Short Tales From Earth's Final Chapter: Book 5

“Without a mindful willingness to traverse our own discomfort and to listen in challenging spaces, we are doomed. At times this does mean choosing to sit in dialogue across from groups who hold egregious ideologies to our own. There is no binary conflict, nor binary solution to conflict. Just as there are no binary people.”
― D. Simone

“Youth has its moments of keen intuition, even normal youth—but the intuition of those who stand mid-way between the sexes, is so ruthless, so poignant, so accurate, so deadly, as to be in the nature of an added scourge; and by such an intuition did Stephen discover that all was not well with her parents.”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

“Gender nonbinary sounds so restrictive. Like your gender can either be binary or not binary. Which...is a binary.”
― Jules Machias

“Gender nonbinary sounds so restrictive. Like your gender can either be binary or not binary. Which...is a binary”
― Jules Machias, Both Can Be True

“What would it mean for us to lean into Insecurity as a political tool in which we free ourselves from insisting that we perform "perfection" and total confidence in order to advocate for our collective liberation?”
― Da'Shaun L. Harrison, Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness

“What I am really naming here is the complicatedness of feeling both affirmed and harmed by your assault because your body is never really your own when you're fat and Black, and the trauma you arrive at upon realizing that there is no affirmation in touch indented to harm-or at least unintended to be sure of your consent.”
― Da'Shaun L. Harrison, Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness

“How do you tire a spirit? Call it names, tell it what to wear, how to act, how to walk, how to sit, how to carry its books, what to say, when to speak, when not to speak.”
― MJ Jones

“To live in authenticity does something to a person.”
― MJ Jones

“The dress code of "business casual" is highly gendered, and I have to decide which "drag" to wear to work.”
― Sand C. Chang, Nonbinary: Memoirs of Gender and Identity

“I touched my chest, feeling the compression of the binder Theseus had lent me, trying to determine if it made me feel nonbinary or like a dog in a thundervest.”
― Avi Silver, Pluralities

“You can neither fathom nor manifest the true vastness of the human mind, with your puny binary eyes of belief and disbelief - facts and fiction - capitalism and socialism - democracy and autocracy - logicality and sentimentality.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Iman Insaniyat, Mazhab Muhabbat: Pani, Agua, Water, It's All One

“I had been treated as a victim for too long and now I wanted to be invisible, unmarked, too elusive to be domesticated.”
― Grace Jones, I'll Never Write My Memoirs

“We are made to subvert and skirt around structures that are built to exclude us, and it is exhausting work.”
― Kalani Adolpho (editor) , Stephen G. Krueger (editor) , Krista McCracken (editor)

“[...]I was alive like them, real as they were: They could see it. I had proved it to them over and over again. But they chose to ignore it. They debated me, as if I were theoretical. I was a concept, not a person. And then, with their laws and their bans, they outcast me. An object.”
― Ray Nayler, The Mountain in the Sea

“Words are important. They allow us to communicate how we think and feel. Words help us to understand and to be understood.
So, finally grasping the language you've been reaching for, to explain this complex and perplexing thing, a feeling which once felt so abstract and lonely, I started to wonder if--"Maybe, I'm the only one who exists. Is there anybody else out there who feels like this?"--finally being able to articulate this thing, that for so long, you had no idea how to express, is a blessing. It feels like finally being able to release a deep breath. One you didn't even realize you were holding.
I am seen.
I exist.
I am not alone.”
― Theo Parish, Homebody: A Graphic Memoir of Gender Identity Exploration

“Being openly queer can feel intimidating. But every day just by being yourself you inspire the people around you. You don't have to be an influencer to influence!”
― Theo Parish, Homebody: A Graphic Memoir of Gender Identity Exploration

“Affirming your gender can be joyful and safe! If your current binding method isn't doing it for you, experiment with other methods. There is a better one out there for you.”
― Maia Kobabe, Breathe: Journeys to Healthy Binding

“The universe is made up of one kind of matter—everything. There is no binary universe. So there is no binary body. It's a myth. We need to erase difference, embrace the idea of similarity, and recognize that similarity is not a weakening at all but a strengthening.”
― Genesis P-Orridge, Nonbinary: A Memoir

“The imperative to get over it is the imperative to erase yourself, to take your beating, fallible human heart and crush it. To taker your pulsating, bedazzled, gorgeous identity and betray it. To take your glittering, shimmering, divine trauma and throw it in the trash. I will never get over the fact that gender nonconforming people have been the target of incredible violence, marginalization, isolation, and neglect throughout much of the past century. I will never get over it because it is my history, and those who don't know their history are doomed to repeat it.”
― Jacob Tobia, Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story

“I'm a girl. But sometimes I feel like a boy and a girl, both at the same time. They seems more right for me.”
― Amy Kaufman Burk, Hollywood Pride

“Cosmos is colored.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Iftar-e Insaniyat: The First Supper

“Life is nonbinary, existence is nonbiblical.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Iftar-e Insaniyat: The First Supper

“Letter from The Mountaintop (Sonnet 2252)

Cosmos is colored,
all color is kin.
Scarlight makes the mind,
sunlight makes the skin.

Life is nonbinary,
existence is nonbiblical.
When 'sacred' is anagram for 'scared',
to sin is our Earth Gospel.

Churchill and Columbus belong in the jungle,
loudmouth karens belong in mental institution.
Those who've been to the mountaintop,
grow too human for the dunghills of dogma.

Here at the mountaintop, we're just humans -
no black, no white, no believer, nonbeliever -
here at the mountaintop, we're each other's keeper.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Iftar-e Insaniyat: The First Supper