Elliott,

Thank you for your comment! It’s true, gender essentialism, and what I like to call enbyphobia (or non-binaryphobia), is perpetuated and becomes internalized in such ways that it can be hard to identify openly as anything other than man or woman. It’s like identifying as trans men and women seems to be ok (though, as transgender people we know that isn’t the case), but anything further is “too much.” If you haven’t already, I encourage you to check out my piece “I Am a Transtrender and so can you” (forgiving the title, if you can). I believe it’s a good companion piece to this one.

Best,

Kim