The ship has sailed. You are too late. You are trying to impose order onto the world because things feel confusing for you, but the truth is already out.
Gender is not a binary.
There are not just two boxes. Gender is far more fluid and far less rigid. It has always been this way.
We know it, and so do you.
We are witnessing the last-ditch attempts of a failing system, doubling down to try to maintain control. You will make laws and issue guidance and try to make everyone fit neatly into a box.
But it is too late.
Gender is not a binary.
Boys and girls. Pink and blue. Men and women. Gender assigned at birth. Just two – and only two. We know this it doesn’t work. There are too many people who don’t fit easily into one or the other. We know, and so do you. You are scared. We get it. It’s scary to realise that your neat system of boxes and order doesn’t work. But that’s not our fault. You do not need to be scared, not of us. You scapegoat us and make us to blame. But it doesn’t work because we are not the threat.
Gender is not a binary.
We have always existed. Throughout history, we have been here, living alongside you. There are so many stories of people who have lived outside of these boxes. But we were more hidden, and you could ignore us, or call us an anomaly. The exception that proves the rule. But we know, and you know, that this is not the case. We are more than an anomaly. We are everywhere, and the more visible we become, the scarier that is to you, because it proves the point. Gender is not a binary.
It is too late. The truth is everywhere.
The cat is out of the bag.
So are the clownfish and the parrotfish, the cane toad, the white throated sparrow, and dozens of other species which are queer, sex fluid, and non-binary. It’s all coming out now. Darwin was wrong, or rather, he hid some of what he knew. The anomalies and the exceptions. The things that couldn’t be explained. The scientists jumped on board and the train continued down the binary tracks. The wrong tracks. They ended up at the wrong destination. The one that tells us that having just two genders is natural, or as you like to say, biological.
It’s not true.
There are too many of us that are stepped out of the boxes.
There is no going back. It is impossible. It is too late, far too late. We know and so do you.
So, what happens next?
What happens now that the Government tell us that everyone must use toilets according to the biological sex that was assigned at birth, regardless of gender identity, gender reassignment, Gender Recognition Certificates, or anything else?
What happens now that there is a legal ruling to back up the claims that there are only two legitimate boxes – biological male and biological female – and that everything else is an inconvenience?
What happens to us? This is a painful time, a traumatising one. That can’t be underestimated. So, what can we do? How can we manage in this reality?
Well, we wait.
We stay strong. We find our ways around the system where we can. We use whatever toilets we can find a way in to. And we wait.
We ask people to use the correct pronouns for us. We stay visible, wherever we can. We stay strong, and we stay connected. Solidarity is essential. We find our allies – and there are many – and we trust them.
We wait, and the system will collapse.
For it is too late.
This system is crumbling. You know it, for that is why you are doubling down. We know it and you know it.
Gender is not a binary.
You cannot make it so.
We stay strong. Resist wherever we can. Trust our allies. Stay visible. Live our lives.
And the truth will win out in the end.
Stay strong.
Hold on.