Despite how a lady at the bookstore “struggled with” my pronouns and bounced off “he” several times before settling on “they” cause apparently she couldn’t bring herself to say “she.”

Shit’s hard out there.

  • pooberbee (they/she)@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    5 days ago

    It’s fine for you to conform and set those goals for yourself, but please don’t put that on others. Not passing doesn’t make a person nonbinary.

    • Tanis Nikana@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      5 days ago

      Yeah, I don’t pass but I’m definitely binary. My goal isn’t even to pass (though if I could it would be nice, but there’s so much medical shit wrong with me it prolly won’t happen), but is to stay alive, safe, and respected in that order.

    • dandelion (she/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      5 days ago

      Sorry, I never meant to imply OP is non-binary - I just wanted to be sensitive and not assume they were binary; additionally I was thinking about how rough it is to live as a gender non-conforming person, esp. for some non-binary folks whose gender expressions and identities don’t fit in society (and how that will always be true for them, it’s not a rough stage that might end, as it can be for some binary trans folks early in their transition - that’s just life for them, what is authentic to them is what creates friction in society, and that really sucks).

      Not passing is entirely separate from identity, and identity can be quite separate from expression, too. Some trans women are binary but never medically or socially transition, their expression conforms to cis male norms their whole lives - but they’re still women, for example.