Many non-binary people experience gender dysphoria, and some are treated with hormones and choose to undergo gender-affirming surgery. Some of these people identify as transgender, while others do not. Some non-binary people socially transition (change the way they look and changing their pronouns), while others do not. This variety in the way non-binary people approach transitioning has caused a lot of controversy, particularly within the transgender community, with many trans people refusing to acknowledge non-binary people who also identify as transgender as authentically transgender. Many trans people also refuse to acknowledge non-binary as a gender identity. Within the cisgender community, there is also a lot of misunderstanding and controversy surrounding non-binary people, as they see non-binary people who do not transition as “confused”, “looking for attention”, or “going through a phase.” But, as non-binary author, Kate Bornstein says, “All the categories of transgender [including non-binary] find a common ground in that they each break one or more of the rules of gender: What we have in common is that we are gender outlaws, every one of us.”
This controversy within the cisgender community is based on the increasing rise within societies of teenagers and young adults identifying as non-binary. But, as with transgender as an identity, this rise is due to the increasing visibility of celebrities coming out as non-binary, and the increasing presence of non-binary adults on platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.
One of the ways in which some non-binary people affirm their gender is to go by the gender neutral pronoun “they/them” (for example, “They left their umbrella. We should return it to them.”) This too has caused a lot of controversy as trans and cis people insist that using the pronoun “they” is grammatically incorrect. This, however, is incorrect. The pronoun “they” was used as early as the late 14th Century. Other pronouns used by non-binary people include the neo-pronouns xe/xem, zey/zem, per/pers, or ne/nim. Another way in which non-binary people are claiming their gender is through refusing titles such as Ms, Miss, Mrs, and Mr, instead using the title Mx.
Non-binary people experience prejudice, just as transgender people do. As discussed above, this prejudice comes from within the trans community itself. Part of this prejudice is that most countries in the world do not recognize non-binary as a legal gender, meaning that their identity documents and passports state that they are male or female. There is an increasing push to create a third option within legal documents, using “X” instead of “M” or “F” to indicate non-binary identity.