Nonbinary Gender Identities
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Nonbinary Gender Identities Nonbinary Gender Identities History, Culture, Resources CHARLIE Mc NABB ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD Lanham • Boulder • New York • London Published by Rowman & Littlefield A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowman.com Unit A, Whitacre Mews, 26-34 Stannary Street, London SE11 4AB Copyright © 2018 by Rowman & Littlefield All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: McNabb, Charlie, 1983- author. Title: Nonbinary gender identities : history, culture, resources / Charlie McNabb. Description: Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017028732 (print) | LCCN 2017040955 (ebook) | ISBN 9781442275522 (electronic) | ISBN 9781442275515 (cloth : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Gender identity—United States. | Gender nonconformity—United States. | Sexual minorities—Identity. | Sexual minorities—United States—History. Classification: LCC HQ73 (ebook) | LCC HQ73 .M36 2018 (print) | DDC 305.30973—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017028732 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Printed in the United States of America For Seren, and for nonbinary people everywhere. Contents List of Figures ix Foreword xi Preface xv Acknowledgments xix Part I: (Hir)stories 1 Introduction to Nonbinary Gender 3 2 Nonbinary Visibility in the United States 13 3 Culturally Specific Genders 33 4 Nonbinary Genders in Popular Culture 55 5 Notable Nonbinary People 71 Part II: Resources 6 Archives and Special Collections 93 7 Nonfiction Books 127 8 Journal Literature 145 9 Theses and Dissertations 163 10 Fiction Books 173 11 Organizations and Associations 191 vii viii CONTENTS 12 Online Resources 203 13 Multimedia 217 Appendix A: Glossary 241 Appendix B: Pronoun Usage 251 Appendix C: Sex, Sexuality, and Gender Primer 255 Appendix D: Library of Congress Subject Headings 259 Bibliography 265 Index 277 About the Author 283 List of Figures Figure 1.1. Ticky Boxes 3 Figure 1.2. Potential for Movement 4 Figure 1.3. Constellation of Possibilities 4 Figure 2.1. Christine Jorgensen 15 Figure 2.2. Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) 17 Figure 2.3. Restroom Comic 22 Figure 3.1. Valboa Throws Some Indians, Who Had Committed the Terrible Sin of Sodomy, to the Dogs to Be Torn Apart 36 Figure 3.2. We’Wha 38 Figure 3.3. Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirit Powwow 42 Figure 3.4. Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu 45 Figure 4.1. Alok Vaid-Menon 60 Figure 4.2. Jacob Tobia 61 Figure 4.3. Marilyn Roxie 65 Figure 4.4. Micah Rajunov 66 Figure 5.1. Vaginal Davis 72 Figure 5.2. Kate Bornstein 75 ix x LIST OF FIGURES Figure 5.3. Leslie Feinberg 77 Figure 5.4. Justin Vivian Bond 80 Figure 5.5. Riki Wilchins 82 Figure 5.6. Qwo-Li Driskill 85 Figure A2.1. “Pronoun Dos and Don’ts” 252 Figure A2.2. Pronoun Chart 253 Figure A3.1. Gender Unicorn 257 Foreword A guide that illuminates pathways to the incredible wisdom, wit, storytell- ing, scholarship, and history of nonbinary folks has been needed for some time. Finding and contextualizing this knowledge has been a challenge for researchers, regardless of their personal connections to the topic or research experience with other LGBTQ identities. I am glad that this guide has finally been published, and particularly so that Charlie McNabb is the one who cre- ated it. Charlie brings scholarship, knowledge, compassion, and pride to this showcase of people and works that have historically been excluded from the research process. Several factors make it hard to find nonbinary works. Search engine al- gorithms have historically placed more value on delivering cissexism, bina- rism, and pornography than true nonbinary and trans experiences. School districts use software that blocks positive representations of nonbinary and transgender people. In libraries, people who use public computers to find this information are surveilled both by computer software and people sitting next to them. Library catalogs—the tools that are supposed to act as guides to library collections—have been built with the assumption that all authors are either male or female, and that terms like “nonbinary” and “genderqueer” have no place in research. For example, the Library of Con- gress received a proposal to add “genderqueer” as a subject heading more xi xii FOREWORD than ten years ago, and has still not created a way to describe books that discuss nonbinary gender identities.1 As a result, trans and gender noncon- forming people have often taken it upon ourselves to connect our peers to the resources they need. Fortunately, it turns out that when we take on this role, the results are fabulous. The present volume fits into a long genealogy of gender nonconforming, nonbinary, and transgender people guiding their peers toward useful infor- mation. Since the 1970s—and perhaps earlier—transgender magazines and newsletters have regularly featured book recommendations and abstracts of scholarly articles. By 1994—only two years after the release of the first widely used web browser—trans woman Julia Case had created an online directory of useful links called GenderWeb “so that we could all share some knowledge and educate those around us.”2 In 2016, activists and scholars collaborated to create a massive crowdsourced bibliography highlighting Latinx identity, LG- BTQ communities, and gendered violence as part of the #PulseOrlandoSyl- labus project. When at their best, bibliographies can bring healing to harmed communities, knowledge to uninformed ones, and a humble sense of inquiry to all their readers. Bibliographies have the power to bring people together. In fact, Charlie McNabb and I first met through constructing bibliographies on the Resources Committee of the American Library Association’s GLBT Round Table. As we worked together, I was struck by Charlie’s dogged commitment, scholarly approach, and intersectional awareness. They bring these qualities to the present volume as well—what a treat for you readers! I encourage my fellow library workers to use the bibliographic compo- nents of this volume to work toward a collection that is accountable to a wide variety of nonbinary perspectives. But please don’t stop once the books are ordered. Make sure that you read those books as soon as they arrive at your library. Display these books prominently and talk them up with your col- leagues and patrons. Get to know the other chapters of Charlie’s work, and challenge yourself with the questions they pose. To every reader: take time to savor the beautiful, passionately pluralistic landscape that this volume paints. Get to know the incredible people, genders, and histories profiled in this book. It is my hope that this book will help you FOREWORD xiii to find community, learn compassion, and build up a deeper acquaintance with the wisdom of nonbinary people. —Jane Sandberg Electronic Resources Librarian Linn-Benton Community College NOTES 1. Sanford Berman, “Personal LCSH Scorecard,” last modified April 5, 2008, http:// jenna.openflows.com/files/lcshscorecard080415.pdf. 2. Julia Case, “Julia’s Page,” GenderWeb, last modified May 2, 1998, http://web .archive.org/web/20000819003830/http://genderweb.org/julie. Preface Nonbinary gender identities are those that are not exclusively male or fe- male. Nonbinary people can identify as being a combination of male and female, shifting between male and female, or off the male-female continuum altogether. Nonbinary is an umbrella term and can also be used as a discrete identity term; other terms include genderqueer, genderfluid, and bigender. Nonbinary people are becoming more visible in popular culture, library media, and politics. Gender nonconformity is celebrated in popular culture, with rock musicians, actors, and models combining traditionally masculine and feminine styles. Popular and scholarly media are gaining greater repre- sentation of nonbinary identities, particularly in young adult fiction, queer- core music and zines, and journal literature. Nonbinary people are making strides in the political and legal realms, with a small but growing number of individuals being granted legal nonbinary status. They are also fighting for new gender markers on identity documents, gender-neutral restroom access, trans-competent health care, and hate crimes and discrimination legislation. Despite the relatively recent growth of representation, these people have existed for centuries. Indigenous cultures around the world have recognized alternate gender roles and identities that do not fit neatly within the Western binary. Some First Nations and Native Americans use the term “nonbinary,” while others prefer to identify as Two-Spirit, an umbrella term encompassing sexual and gender diversity in the indigenous Americas. In some countries, xv xvi PREFACE third genders are recognized socially and legally; the hijras of India, for ex- ample, have a specialized role in their society to bless infants, and they have a third gender marker on identity documents. The Anglo-European