I haven't actually written about gender stuff here in a while, I'm realizing. 😅

When I first came out, I did a ton of reading about labels and landed on "agender." My felt sense of gender was a whisper most of the time, and I felt it was more important to me to focus on being myself than to try to conform to a particular part of the gender binary. Even my early transition goals were reflective of this: I remember wanting to avoid breast growth entirely when I first started fHRT.

These days, I feel like the "agender" label is fitting me less. I have boobs, and I *like* that I have them. I haven't made drastic changes to my wardrobe, but I've absolutely added more femme touches. That sense of gender is much louder than it was before, even if it still doesn't feel like it fits cleanly into the binary.

Where does that leave me?

The word "queer" has been a much more regular part of my vocabulary since coming out, and the idea of "queering"—of pushing back on norms when they don't fit—has been a consistent part of my adventure. With respect to gender, then, "genderqueer" is probably the best fitting label for me these days. (I'm very certainly queer in other ways too; I've adopted Nick Walker's "neuroqueer" to describe my neurodivergence, and am certainly some flavor of relationship-queer.)

Anyhow, if you see me using "agender" a lot less going forward, now you know why. ☺️

#agender #genderqueer #neuroqueer

And on that note, I should probably update my intro post!

@internet_ryan Well-timed for this to get boosted in!

I'm going through a similar process myself right now.

I've always identified (50-some year) as a cis man, just one who in recent years learned he likes skirts and lipstick and such.

My 9yo came out to us as nonbinary a couple months ago and is currently testing "agender."

So that prompted me to check back in. "Agender" didn't quite sit right for me, I realized.

I'm still looking, though. Definitely some form of genderqueer (I already knew I was queer in some other aspects), but testing different, more specific identifiers.

@naga Heh, well timed indeed!

For me, it's always been less about the label and more about figuring out what the happiest/best version of "me" looks like. (See https://lgbtqia.space/@internet_ryan/114390586611721872 for a bit more detail on that, and see https://lgbtqia.space/@internet_ryan/114695314012246225 for an entire rant on the imprecision of labels.)

I hope you're able to find something that resonates for you. ☺️

(Edit to remove the CWs; sorry about that.)

Ryan Clough :v_gqueer: :v_pan: (@[email protected])

@tortiecat > I tell myself that what really matters is my inner freedom. For me, freedom means, among other things, being able to *not* think about gender at all - which is funny, because it's all I'm thinking about at this moment, trying to define what freedom is for me 😆 It seems paradoxical, but what you've described is exactly what I'm going for, and why I landed on the "agender" label. Yes, it has the weird side effect that I think more about my gender presentation actively now as I explore, but it also has a (very positive) side effect of not needing to invest in something that doesn't feel like "me." Ultimately, my gender isn't important most of the time, so why would I limit myself to showing up in one specific way? So yeah, totally makes sense. 🙂

LGBTQIA.Space
@internet_ryan Thank you!

@internet_ryan And I don't have any particular dysphoria about being seen or even calling myself a cis man. So I'm lucky there.

But I'm working on seeing if there's anything that feels better.

Here is little bit of thread so far on my side: https://toot.cat/@naga/116091924889943010