I am gender confused
I’m just writing a quick article to let you know I am non-binary.
Sharing this feels a bit daunting but brings me a lot of happiness.
I am most comfortable with the pronouns they/them.
Okay, I’m not actually non-binary. How could I be? It’s not even a thing. In truth, I’m a regular guy who, having endured a torrid 2021 – and survived Christmas alone battling Covid – figured he could do with some love.
I got the idea to come out as non-binary last week when I watched in amazement at how it played out for a certain AFLW player.
No sooner had the footballer declared their non-binary status on Instagram than they were inundated with thousands of ‘likes’ and hundreds of messages of support – in the off-season, no less!
So, I decided I would use this platform to publicly announce my gender confusion and then spend the next few days glorying in the attention.
In case you are unfamiliar with how this works, let me lay it out for you. Basically, I tell you that I’m non-binary and you tell me how incredible I am.
Don’t worry that there is no such thing as non-binary. And don’t waste time asking why it’s necessary for me to shout my gender muddle from the rooftops.
If we all play our part, I get to feel special and you get to feel enlightened. Those are the two outcomes. It’s binary, you see.
Someone might like to kick things off by leaving a note in the comments section thanking me for sharing that I no longer identify as male or female. Feel free to be proud of me.
You are more than welcome to describe me as ‘brave’ and ‘courageous’. Other adjectives I respond well to include ‘amazing’ and ‘inspirational’.
Some of you should not hesitate to tell me how pleased you are that I’m living my truth, and even point out that I’m blazing a trail for young people.
I’m not saying everyone needs to do this, but if someone wanted to say I was a ‘role model’, that would be awesome as well.
If you haven’t time to gush your admiration, you can just drop a love heart emoji (or three) into my Twitter feed. It’s a simple gesture, but it lets everyone know that you’re thinking about me, which I really like.
It’s pretty important to me that at least a few of you thank me for being ‘visible’.
I feel like this will help to protect me against charges that I am only doing this for attention. (Bigots gonna bigot, right?)
Of course, you and I both know that this is not about attention seeking. Me coming out as non-binary is about me making myself highly visible and available for public praise – a brave and courageous thing to do, as many of you should affirm in the comments section – so that others can be helped, or whatever.
Hopefully I can inspire other people who feel unloved or invisible or just at a loose end that they too can go non-binary and receive, as their due, respect and adulation as if they had done something or even just said something that makes sense.
