The event I attended revolved around the backlash attached to people who live outside the gender box. Four individuals gathered on a stage to freely talk about their personal experiences and share them with the wide public. This event featured individuals who are not a part of the binary genders that are featured in the world. Those four explained how they defined the “non-binary” term, how culture interacted with their gender identity, the responses they received from their families, their relations with the LGBTQ+ community and how they manage their lives publicly. The group composed of people that were born mostly during the 70-80s, but one was around the same age as the audience which was around 19 years and they came from very different countries which were a great addition.
The talk included some experiences that the four individuals lived throughout their lives and how difficult life has been because they considered themselves as non-binary. Some of them mentioned that most people labelled with gender but in reality, they just wanted to be known by who they are which was themselves, their name, not the constitution of their bodies or sexual orientation. Others stated that there were no such terms that defined non-binary individuals which made it very difficult back then to illustrate or define how they felt. One of them mentioned that their grandparents were very homophobic people; Even if they wanted everyone to know how they felt, they preferred not to tell their grandparents.
When we think of difficulties non-binary people receive, we think of the way they are referred to as, or how society treats them as alien, from the experiences that the 4 individuals received, we can understand that it is because many think that male and female are the only “normal” genders that the people who do not correspond to these suffer. Overall, it was very interesting to listen to such unique but believable stories. The difficulties these individuals faced were terrible and shows how such people are still treated in today’s society. I have spoken to many in the audience and they have all enjoyed listening to the experiences the four shared with us because we were able to understand better how it is to live in a world being “non-binary”. I would strongly suggest attending such talks because you will be able to meet people that have actually been through those stages of life or maybe still are, but their experiences are something everyone can learn from.
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