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TheGaygency

Glossary

Genderqueer / Gender Queer

Genderqueer is an umbrella term for people whose gender falls outside the categories of man and woman, or who reject those categories entirely.

Genderqueer / Gender Queer.
Kye Rowan / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

Genderqueer is an umbrella term, and sometimes a specific identity, for people whose gender falls outside the binary of man and woman or who reject fixed gender categories. It overlaps closely with non-binary and is sometimes used interchangeably with it. The word emerged in the 1990s out of queer theory and activist writing, borrowing the reclaimed word queer to signal a rejection of conventional norms. A genderqueer person might experience a blend of genders, no gender, a gender that shifts over time, or one entirely outside familiar frameworks. People who identify this way may use any pronouns, so the respectful approach is simply to ask.

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