Transcending the gender binary: Gender non-binary young adults in Amsterdam

Abstract

This qualitative study discusses the experienced identity of gender non-binary young adults. Despite growing positive discourse in the Netherlands toward gender minorities, in practice this group still faces exclusion and stigmatization of their identity. This article draws from Butler’s (2004, 2011) conceptions of deconstructing the hegemonic gender binary and heteronormativity. It explores the layered experiences of gender non-binary young adults in Amsterdam. Through participatory observations and in-depth interviews, this investigation unravels the self-narratives of those who identify with non-binary gender identities and demonstrates how they cope with their minority identity and resist exclusion.

Keywords:

• Gender minorities
• queer
• (de)constructivism
• identity
• narrative

Introduction

Celebrities such as Asia Kate Dillon and JD Samson are prime examples of people with non-binary gender identities. The label ‘gender non-binary’ operates as an umbrella term that falls within the broad spectrum of gender diversity and covers many identities such as a-gender, bi-gender, post-gender, gender-queer and gender fluid, all of which indicate nonconformity to gender stereotypes (Beemyn, 2011; Green & Maurer, 2017; Richards et al., 2016). Gender non-binary trans people differ from binary trans people mainly in that the latter accept the gender binary and aim to ‘cross’ it (FTM = female to male, MTF = male to female) (Yeadon-Lee, 2016). Gender non-binary people are gaining more social visibility¹ (Yeadon-Lee, 2016) and some medical recognition (Richards et al., 2016). Different findings suggest that there is an increase in people identifying outside of the gender binary (Kuper, Nussbaum, & Mustanski, 2012; Yeadon-Lee, 2016). Although, non-binary gender identities are not in fact new (Herdt, 2012), both the actual terminology as well as ‘coming out’ as a non-binary trans person are relatively new (Yeadon-Lee, 2016). Representations of gender diversity in Western popular culture, such as the aforementioned celebrities, through media (Craig, McInroy, McCready, & Alaggia, 2015), including the internet, have probably helped in presenting gender diversity to the mainstream realm (Driver, 2008). In particular, the internet as a safe space for trans individuals has become significantly important for expanding their networks and educating themselves (and others) (Shapiro, 2004). It has also served as a means of negotiating identities (Paradis, 2016) and as a place to “try out or test different identities” (Robinson, Bansel, Denson, Ovenden, & Davies, 2014, p. 32). Furthermore, the online realm is increasingly used for stimulating collective identity and is therefore important in developing a sense of belonging and engaging in activism. In all, it has greatly contributed to the visibility of the trans community (Shapiro, 2015). This is also the case for non-binary identities and their narratives (Smith et al., 2014). This visibility has created more space for imagination beyond the traditional gender system, making room for different identities that move between the extremes of the gender continuum (Driver, 2008; Linstead & Pullen, 2006). Green and Maurer (2017) even speak of a “gender revolution”. David Halperin (2003) ascribes this shifting landscape of gender and sexuality (norms) in postmodern society to the “new age of sexual radicalism and fluid gender possibilities” (Halperin, 2003, p. 339). Although not all cities are equally open to diversity, and some can be markedly conservative, the context of the city is considered as especially beneficial for giving space to gender and sexual diversity (Driver, 2008).

Gender non-binary individuals disrupt and challenge the gender dichotomy. They therefore meet with problems like discrimination and transphobia (Lombardi, 2009). Despite a growing space for gender minorities (Driver, 2008; Kuper et al., 2012), queer people in general have to deal with problems like harassment, violence, discrimination (Grossman et al., 2009) and other forms of inequality (as demonstrated by various studies, e.g., Butler, 2006; Dworkin & Yi, 2003; Russell & Fish, 2016; Sanders, 2009). This inequality automatically reduces them to an identity of the other. Additionally, and in comparison to same-sex attracted people and binary-identified transgender people (that is, trans men and trans women), those who identify with a non-binary gender identity face extra difficulty, as they fit even less into the conventional fixed-gender matrix of the heterosexual female (femininity) or male (masculinity) (Richards et al., 2016). Hence, they find themselves in-between structures of inclusionary discourses and exclusionary practices. Gender non-binarism is typically an example of a stigmatized identity, as proposed by Goffman (2009). This raises the question of how ordinary gender non-binary young people experience their gender identity. Here, we present our empirical inquiry of this ‘new’ gender identity, a minority within a minority, and answer the following questions: (1) How do Amsterdam gender non-binary young adults experience their identity? (2) Insofar as they experience their identity as a stigmatized identity, how do they cope with this stigma?

This article first addresses the central concepts, which are inspired by Judith Butler’s conceptions of hegemonic heteronormativity, then specifies how and with whom this research was conducted (Methods section). Next, we present our findings, followed by a conclusion answering the research questions and a discussion of the supposed shift in the hegemonic norm.

Theoretical discussion

According to Judith Butler (2011), gender is referred to as a cultural fiction. It is the sociocultural framework in which society constructs gender archetypes of either masculinity or femininity, led by two essentialist biological sexes (i.e., male and female). This fiction is sustained and reinforced through discourse and institutional practice, such as stereotypical media representations (Siebler, 2010), which in turn affects society and thus has repercussions for the individual (Butler, 2011). Sex, sexuality and gender are not interchangeable concepts. In simplified terms, sex is about physical characteristics, and sexuality is about sexual orientation, that is, emotional, physical and/or romantical attraction, while gender is about attitudes, feelings and behaviors given in a certain sociocultural context. Social expectations are then linked to gendered behavior and, with that, one’s sexual attraction, which is expected to be toward the opposite sex (Yeadon-Lee, 2016). Thus, the ‘doing’ of gender in Western society comes with stringent gender rules informed by biological differences. In turn, this fiction produces both the essentialist binary of masculinity and femininity as well as the hetero-cis–normative² ‘truth’ (Butler, 2011; Worthen, 2016). Withdrawing from these normative identities reduces one to being an error of society (Butler, 2006, 2011). This otherness, opposed to the hegemonic norm, has the potential of stigmatization.

In response to this hegemonic binary and the issue of stigmatization, queer activists, (including non-binary young people) are engaged in all sorts of pragmatic identity politics such as organizations (e.g., educational programs, interventions, squatting groups), advocacy and ‘queerpowerment’ (Eleftheriadis, 2015; Cath, Hilhorst, & Inglehart, 2013). Informed by queer theory, queer politics fosters alternative “non- or anti-identities” (Jones & Hillier, 2013, p. 291). In other words, queer activism offers a radical counter-reaction that aims to denaturalize any ‘naturalness’ of sex differences (Cohen, 1997). Queer politics “stands in direct contrast to the normalizing tendencies of hegemonic identities” of sexuality and gender, which originate from static conceptions of these identities (Cohen, 1997, p. 438). This type of activism therefore makes room for unconventional gender and sexual identities (Halperin, 2003). Activists demand a place for gender and/or sexuality diverse (GSD) people within society and fight for inclusiveness (Cohen, 1997). Additionally, within the academic arena, queer studies scholars have tackled established identity norms and binaries using methods inspired by Derrida’s and Foucault’s deconstructivist approach (Butler, 2004). To unsettle hetero-cis-normativity as the dominant construct, several scholars opt for “de-gendering”, or the “undoing” of gender (e.g., Butler, Halperin). Butler (2004) states that unsettling rigid norms starts with deconstructing gender as a fixed entity. Pivotal to this poststructuralist approach is the dismantling of meaning, such as linguistic meaning (Barrett, 2014), and the production of counternarratives (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002). The notion of a counternarrative, stemming from critical race theorists, is adapted by different minority groups as a “critical response to dominant narratives” (Wagaman, 2016, p. 212). In this way, the narratives show a particular kind of agency that entails choosing a position “on the margin of the power” (Ortner, 2006, p. 147), or choosing “to step aside”, meaning stepping into the margins of discursive power to produce counternarratives to the dominant societal discourses (Collins, 1991; Janssens & Steyaert, 2001; Ghorashi, De Boer, & Ten Holder, 2017). Counternarratives can therefore be an important source of resistance against social stigma (Wagaman, 2016).

Methods

In the ethnographic research tradition, we thoroughly entered the Amsterdam queer world and attended several queer events at renowned queer venues in Amsterdam (Vrankrijk, de Trut, de Reguliersdwarsstraat). Additionality, we considered data gathered at public gender debates (Gender, Sex & Thoughts, The Pink Sweetheart, IQMF)³. Notes were taken at the events and initial data, such as quotes by speakers, were collected through participatory observations during the debates. Eleven young adults who identify with a gender non-binary identity participated in this study. All of them live in Amsterdam and are in the 20–30 age range. Recruitment happened at the events and debates, and through snowball sampling. Participants were interviewed during in-depth sessions lasting about one and a half hours. Though the sample size was relatively small, the interviews provided rich and detailed data, as did the participatory observations. Although participants had their non-binary gender identities as well as age and city in common, we aimed to speak to as diverse people as possible. Therefore, we also considered religious, socioeconomic, educational and ethnic backgrounds in participant selection (see Table 1). Nevertheless, the group was less diverse than we had hoped for. Most were higher educated and more than half were engaged in an artistic occupation of some kind (e.g., tattoo artistry and film). Interviews were conducted at several informal places throughout Amsterdam from March through May 2016. We worked with a topic list, with topics derived from the theory and the data collected during participatory observations. These included: gender, identity, positioning, self-image and development. Two topics that arose from the participatory observations were safe spaces and platforms. We assumed, based on our reading of the literature, that our participants would probably reject the gender binary (Jones & Hillier, 2013), but if not male or female, could they positively identify with a ‘new’ identity and, if so, what identity? How had they developed that identity? And if a non-binary gender identity is loaded with stigma, how did they deal with that? We purposefully kept the topics rather general. We started with an open question about how they identified and then probed further. To explore participants’ identity experience(s), we asked about how their identity had developed and what meaning they gave to it. To learn how they coped with stigma, we asked about others’ reactions to them, ranging from reactions by others in their direct environment to societal reactions toward gender non-binarism, and about their own dealings with those reactions. We also asked what had helped them to come out as a gender non-binary person and what helped them to deal with negative reactions from others. We reached data saturation after eleven interviews. All interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed using software program Atlas-Ti. The first-level coding of the transcripts followed the topic list using the a priori codes. During a second close reading, other codes where added and fine-tuned: (1) descriptive codes – words literally found in the transcripts, (2) in vivo codes – concepts used by the participants themselves, (3) process codes – text referring to action (Saldaña, 2013). In the second-level analysis, codes were combined into broader themes and classifications. Additionally, these code groups were compared for similarities and differences. Eventually, five main themes became apparent regarding how participants deal with and experience their identity. The following section discusses those themes.

Table 1. Characteristics of respondents.

Resp.	Age	Born in (Dutch city)	Raised in (formative years)	Level of education	Studies	Occupation	Ethnic background	Religion
Alex	22	Amsterdam	Arnhem	Bachelor	Artez Academy* Comic Design Cross Media Design	(Visual) Artist Film	Native Dutch	Born into a Protestant family Participant’s religion: n.a.
Robin	29	Rotterdam	Alkmaar, Oranjestad Aruba	Bachelor	MIC (Media Information & Communication)	Business Controller – Finance	Aruban (Native American, West African and Eastern + Western European descent)	Born into a Christian family Participant’s religion: n.a.
Bobby	23	Alkmaar	Alkmaar	Intermediate Vocational Education	Media College Audiovisual and Animation	Freelance Video Editor, All-Around Creative	Surinamese (Indian, Pakistani)	n.a.
Renee	24	Maastricht	Rotterdam	Bachelor	Rietveld Academy** Photography	Freelance Photographer	Native Dutch	Born into a Christian family Participant’s religion: n.a.
Nicky	28	Amsterdam	Amsterdam	Masters	UvA*** Philosophy	n.a. (student)	Native Dutch	n.a.
Bo	23	Nijmegen	Nijmegen	Higher General Secondary Education	n.a.	Model	Native Dutch	n.a.
Sasha	26	Hoorn	Hoorn	Bachelor	VU**** Pedagogic Science	Freelance Artist/Dancer Student Volunteer Childline	Native Dutch	Born into a Jehovah’s Witnesses family Participant’s religion: n.a.
Yaniek	27	Venlo	Arnhem	Bachelor	Artez Academy Fine Arts	(Visual) Artist	Surinamese (Northwestern European and West African descent)	Born into a Protestant family Participant’s religion: n.a.
Sam	26	Rotterdam	Rotterdam	Bachelor	Rietveld Academy**	Tattoo Artist	Dutch, Chinese	n.a.
Dani	22	Gouda	Italy, Bangladesh, Niger, DR of Congo, Senegal and the Netherlands	Int. Baccalaureate, Bachelor	UvA*** Anthropology	Student Freelance: Black trans advocacy, diversion peer educator gelijk = gelijk? [equal = equal?], an anti-discrimination program	Dutch, Senegalese	Mother: raised Protestant Father: Sunni Muslim Participant’s religion: n.a.
Quinn	25	Amsterdam	Haarlem	Bachelor (HBO)	Artez Academy* Dance	Dancer	Dutch, French	n.a.

* Art school located in Arnhem.

** Art school located in Amsterdam.

*** University of Amsterdam.

**** VU University Amsterdam.

Results

During the fieldwork, five main themes became apparent regarding how participants deal with and experience their identity: (1) gender as a spectrum, (2) discovering and defining oneself, (3) (down)playing gender constructions, (4) spaces of visibility and (5) the new normal.

To guarantee full anonymity, we use pseudonyms when quoting participants. Ages and ethnic backgrounds are added to give a more detailed image of the participants. Some participants felt that the pronouns “he” and “she” referred too much to merely one of the sexes or genders. They (explicitly) requested that we use plural or neutral pronouns such as “they” and “them”. Therefore “they” and “them” are regularly used in the text, even when referring to one individual only. Regarding the terminology, participants sometimes use the terms “queer”⁴ or “the LGBT(Q)” where we would use sexuality and/or gender diverse, for instance. However, to stay as close as possible to the participants’ own words, we kept to their wording when quoting them. In terms of ethnicity, the participants have a variety of mixed ethnicities: some have parents from different ethnicities, some are first generation with an ethnic minority background and some have their roots in former Dutch colonies. We use hyphenation to show the mixed aspect of their Dutch identity, knowing that it does not completely capture the diversity behind the hyphenation.

Gender as a Spectrum

While their dominant ideas about gender in society departed from essentialist binaries, all participants took a (more) deconstructivist stance when considering the gender system. Sam (26, Chinese-Dutch) aptly stated, “Gender is a construct, I counter that”. Sasha (26, native Dutch) explained how they subvert traditional gender ideas of femininity versus masculinity, “I do all sorts of things to ‘go against’ gender binarism”. This, then, is in line with the idea of going against gender (stereotypes) and promoting gender nonconformity (Green & Maurer, 2017; Richards et al., 2016). They continue, “I, for instance, often wear a T-shirt that says ‘Fuck gender, but love yourself’. I have changed my Facebook status to a-gender. And I, together with some activists, have passed the bill for gender-neutral toilets at the University of Amsterdam”. For the participants, gender could not be reduced to a mere dichotomy between feminine and masculine conceptions. Discussing gender that way would be too simplistic.

Gender is generally explained through the body. There is man, there is woman,

and that’s it? Notions of gender for me are less rigid, yet more fluid.

I don’t see it that straightforwardly. (Alex, 22, native Dutch)

In a similar vein, Robin (29, Aruban-Dutch) stated, “Understanding gender as just male or female is too simplistic of an approach, I don’t want to go along with that, but actively do something about it”.

Alex later explained that their (gender) identity is in motion, thereby expressing what other participants also stated, that gender is experienced as a spectrum covering a plurality of identity experiences. The diversity of identities, as well activism as a means of creating room for these identities, is also supported by various scholars (e.g., Cohen, 1997; Halperin, 2003; Jones & Hillier, 2013).

To indicate the complexity of gender (and of their own gender identity), Bobby (23, Indian-Pakistani) explained, “Thinking in these categories limits us and moreover ignores people who are different”. Nicky (28, native Dutch) also stressed how gender should be seen as a spectrum. According to their and other participants’ views, we should critically question gender as we (still) practice it today and start acknowledging its diversity. (Conventional) language is also experienced as hampering the expression of their gender identity. “Gender is more complex than the words, the vocabulary, we choose to describe it”, said Bo (23, native Dutch). In these conceptualizations, we see a strong alignment with arguments in queer studies (Butler, 2004, 2011; Jones & Hillier, 2013) and its need to deconstruct linguistic meaning, as also argued by Barrett (2014). It is exactly this complexity that dominates the tone of the next subsection, which is about the participants’ own gender identities.

Discovering and Defining Oneself

The phenomenon of gender non-binarism refers to the deconstruction of gender boundaries. There exist many labels to describe this phenomenon, a fact that resounded in the terminology the participants used when trying to explain their identities. As Quinn (25, French-Dutch) said, “There are many terms to define my gender-fluidity, but it all kind of describes the same thing”. Terms that the participants commonly used when describing their identity were “non-binary”, “(gender)queer”, “gender fluid” and “gender neutral”. In line with this latter, Dani (22, Senegalese-Dutch) explained that “[my] body is a neutral canvas”. Quinn (25, French-Dutch), who on the one hand, stated that they do not care about labels, but on the other hand, identifies as gender fluid and queer, and also as “butch”, endorses this, “The line between man or woman and masculine or feminine is extremely thin for me. Actually, they are always intertwined. I don’t feel a hundred percent male or female”. Similarly, Nicky (28, native Dutch) argued:

I don’t find it interesting to define myself. I finally escaped from that stifling, limiting box, I don’t even want to think about gender now … My gender identity doesn’t need any labeling, it is just who I am.

Bo (23, native Dutch), on the other hand, feels that their gender identity is not so much something they “just” are. They explained it as, “Gender is not something who I am, but rather is what I feel right now”. When speaking about this feeling or experience of gender identity, other participants referred to gender as “a state of mind”.

When looking back, finding the state of mind I have today was quite a search. I did not understand myself during puberty. I didn’t understand my body, my sexual desires, my thoughts. I just always tried to fit in with society. But now that I found others who are like me and understand me, I have come to understand myself. I must say I have great state of mind. (Dani, 22, Senegalese-Dutch)

I learned that they even have a name for people like me: gender fluid. Wow! [laughs out loud] … Finally, it seems that they understand my fluidness of body and mind. (Sam, 26, Chinese-Dutch)

A way of experiencing (and of expressing) the motion of gender identity is through art. Alex (22, native Dutch) and Renee (24, native Dutch) investigate and question what gender means through their work. Renee has made a series of photographs in which stereotypical men and women are portrayed: that is, traditional images of femininity (make-up and high heels) and masculinity (strong and muscled). However, a subsequent series plays with the mix of “gender rules”. According to Renee, it was a reflective process for their own identity formation. Actually, several participants expressed that being part of this research had a similar effect. Sam (26, Chinese-Dutch), for instance, felt that being interviewed helped them tell their “alternative” story, reflect on it, and thereby better understand their own positioning in terms of gender identity and therefore themselves. This notion is in line with Solórzano and Yosso’s (2002) conception of counternarratives.

Participants’ discovery of their gender identities is somewhat related to, yet not completely determined by, their bodies. Yaniek (27, Surinamese) explained that genitals do not necessarily define one’s identity. It is also about other elements like feelings, emotions, thoughts, appearance, expression and sexuality, which each individual can experience differently.

During the discovery of my own gender identity over the last three years, many people asked me if I was not “just” a transgender. This term back then really confused me as it was not who I am. “Changing” to the other sex so to speak, for me, in itself already captures some sort of binarism. I am not binary. It quite shocked me that random people wanted to label me as either man or woman. It really drove me crazy, all those people trying to define me.

Other participants also told us they felt some sort of “pressure” or influence from mainstream society in (re)defining the self, which made it more difficult for them to find out who they were. This again shows the impact of the reproduction and internalization of what we earlier referred to as the dominant cultural fiction around gender binaries (Butler, 2006, 2011; Siebler, 2010). At the same time, however, many participants expressed a kind of playfulness in unsettling gender binaries and took pleasure in embracing “the fluidness” of their body and mind.

(Down)Playing Gender Constructions

In one way or another, participants explained how their own identity depends on the social environment.

My surroundings greatly determine whether I feel and behave feminine or masculine. You, for example, really make me feel like a lady, buying me a drink and a cake right before we started this interview … I know it might be old-fashioned … On the other hand, when I am with my father … who requires [louder voice] me to be more masculine, then I feel more like a dude. (Quinn, 25, French-Dutch)

Both Bobby (23, Indian-Pakistani) and Alex (22, native Dutch) also explained that the way others approach them influences the way they see and position themselves. Indeed, because of having feelings like this, over half of the participants believed their gender identity always has been and always will be a lifelong search. Renee (24, native Dutch) stated that they identify as a gender non-binary person; however, they do not know if this will stay so forever: “Who knows how I will identify in ten years or so?” Similarly, Sam (26, Chinese-Dutch) explained that they define and redefine their identity constantly because of how other people like family, friends or colleagues perceive them and because of the roles they feel they need to fulfill. These statements all refer to a certain contextuality, which determines the self-(re)conception. That (re)conceptualization, however, is not restricted only to contexts in which one engages with distant others. It can equally happen when surrounded by like-minded (e.g., other queer) people, as Robinson et al. (2014) describe when discussing the “trying out” of different identities. We will work out this point in the next subsection.

Thus, the participants experienced their gender identity as being in flux. Yet, as their gender identity is a taboo topic, something less accepted, their experience of it being a lifelong search is also fueled by how others react to them.

I see myself as quite normal … however, I know that other people see me as a minority … A minority means standing in someone’s shadow … For example, I have had many different jobs. And wherever I work, I always have the feeling of being excluded or that they want to hide me … WHY?! … I mean I have just as good qualities as others, you know? (Nicky, 28, native Dutch).

Quinn (25, French-Dutch) dealt with serious physical violence:

I am now more secure in what I present to the world … but that used to be different … I have been beaten up a few times, once here in Amsterdam but also in London, where I used to live. Those guys in Amsterdam literally said, “Do you think that we accept you, you faggot? We will take everything from you, you don’t deserve anything”.

From their accounts it is clear that the participants have experienced marginality and some even physical and verbal violence. They tell stories comparable to what Lombardi (2009), when speaking of transphobia, explains that people with trans identities encounter. The participants describe their position as an “outlaw position” or “error”, reminiscent of, for instance, Butler (2011) and Worthen (2016), who speak of inferiority when one finds themselves outside the cis-normative paradigm and thus deviating from the norm (i.e., cisgender identity). Yet, whatever term the participants choose, it is clear that they experience themselves to be in a subordinate position compared to their cisgender (heterosexual) peers. The participants have developed different strategies for coping with their nonconventional identities. Some are engaged in identity politics, activism and movements, where they find like-minded individuals within what they call the “grey area” and where they aim to promote change.

Spaces of Visibility

Many scholars argue that safe spaces are quite essential in reclaiming identities by marginalized groups and producing alternative narratives (Cath et al., 2013; Collins, 1991; Jones & Hillier, 2013; Robinson et al., 2014; Shapiro, 2015). In this study, spaces designated specifically for those identifying as queer seem to be of utmost importance in these young people’s living and exploring of their gender identity (and sexuality). A distinction can be made between online and offline safe spaces.

Online

During our observations, it became apparent that participants within the queer scene generally found that today there is a greater stage for gender minorities, as argued in the literature (e.g., Yeadon-Lee, 2016). Most participants stressed the importance of television and media as a whole, similar to Craig et al.’s (2015) argument that the growing visibility of gender diversity is due to its representations in media. The internet seems to be the main incubator, as is also stressed by Shapiro (2004). Some participants, however, questioned these media outlets because they think they might “hype” or “gimmick” gender diversity, portraying the deviant other as a separate category. Yet, they simultaneously argued that any kind of attention or debate contributes to potential acceptance or acknowledgement, or at least visibility.

Like the aforementioned example of the Facebook status, new conceptions, terms or labels of nonconventional gender identities appear to be ubiquitous and a much spoken of phenomenon. The participants state this is mainly due to online (social) media, along with other web platforms:

Internet, i.e., blogs and platforms, plays a major part in LGBTQ emancipation. The LGBTQ community is becoming more popular and visible. We are no longer a group standing apart from society, but we are moderately accepted by those considered “normal”. This popularity then also explains why many letters have been added to the LGBT … It nowadays includes Q [queer] and leaves room for other or new terms such as gender fluidity. (Alex, 22, native Dutch)

Media … and especially social media, plays a great part in the emancipation of, for example, homosexuals and transgenders … Tumblr, Facebook, Huffington Post, YouTube, to name a few, … draw more attention to LGBTQ and more importantly make people familiar with these phenomena. Besides that, they serve as a beautiful source for those who are still struggling with their identity. This is a way to find like-minded people. (Robin, 29, Aruban-Dutch)

Some participants were self-proclaimed ambassadors for “LGBTQ” people of their generation. “Safe spaces are very suitable places to do this” (Sasha, 26, native Dutch). Not only does this promote visibility, it also meets the need for belonging, to be among like-minded people. Along with online spaces that serve this purpose, there are physical spaces as well.

Offline

During this research, it became apparent that in addition to participating in the online arena, some GSD people are engaged with the Amsterdam squatter scene. Eleftheriadis (2015) underscores the importance of such offline spaces, like the squatter movement. We therefore visited both Vrankrijk and de Trut, two renowned squatter venues. According to Bo (23, native Dutch), “It is the activism that attracts them toward the squatter movement, the anti-establishment mentality”, as they call it. Bobby (23, Indian-Pakistani) calls the crowds at Vrankrijk and de Trut “radical queer activists”, and simultaneously questions their approach to acceptance, saying, “It might be too harsh sometimes”. However, they also acknowledge that both online and offline spaces, as radical as some might be, initiate some sort of positive development toward acceptance. A shared unconventional mind-set appears to be present among the squatters. One of the speakers, identifying as gender non-binary, at the Gender, Sex & Thoughts debate hosted by Felix Meritis (a local cultural center) explicitly stated the following about Vrankrijk:

Vrankrijk, with a V, is one of the few places here in Amsterdam where gender doesn’t matter. You can see it as a gender-neutral space. It’s one of those spaces where everyone is welcome, both “normal” and those who are “different”.

All participants of this study stressed the necessity of such spaces. According to them, and to Eleftheriadis (2015), in the offline sphere, many identity-politics initiatives take place through political movements, gender and diversity debates, lectures or events, and queer parties and festivals. One of the people we talked to during the observations stressed that GSD people need to be put on the map and that “safe spaces are very useful for that”. Yaniek (27, Surinamese) likewise argued:

All the events that are organized also contribute to the LGBTQ community, including all the terms, which are such a hot issue … The gay community now is coming to understand that it is not only about gay men and women anymore, who, for example, fight for marriage, but now it is also about other stories and people who never had a voice before. As we feel there is a bigger stage, we [gender non-binary individuals] step by step engage ourselves in the gender and sexuality debate.

The New Normal

With minor individual differences, all participants recognized a (moderate) shift. Halperin (2003), too, speaks of this shift in notions on gender and sexuality in postmodern days. Again, the participant’s accounts stressed duality: “On the one hand, there is more attention for gender and sexual diversity; on the other hand, there are still abominable circumstances for those minorities” (Renee, 24, native Dutch). Still, most participants believed that the queer community is becoming more visible. Slowly but surely, gender minorities have more opportunities to be a voice for themselves:

It might not be ideal yet, but it is no longer JUST about the heterosexual or JUST about the man or woman and, even better, also not JUST about the homosexual or lesbian, but there is room for all other gender and sexual identities that are different from the old-fashioned notions of gender and identity. (Sasha, 26, native Dutch)

This quote illustrates the general thought: there is more room for expressing diversity when it comes to gender (and sexuality). Sasha then, slightly hesitant, ends their speech by stating, “A bigger stage to queerdom might be a small beginning toward widespread acceptance or visibility, I must admit that …”

Discussion and conclusion

This article explored gender non-binary identities of young people in Amsterdam based on the narratives of our study’s eleven participants. Our findings suggest that gender non-binary young people are facing contradictory processes of inclusion and exclusion, and though they are experiencing a growing visibility, they experience stigmatization at the same time. The combination of interviews and participatory observations provided enough information to distinguish several patterns in the data, which shows that data saturation was achieved. Though our small sample (11 participants) does not allow for generalizations, the patterns were significant enough to capture general themes and challenges despite the diversity of experiences of non-binary trans people.

According to the participants, ideas and inherent systems of classification related to binary identities are outdated. Participants self-identified as gender-fluid individuals or used other non-binary gender identities to self-identify with terms that arose through youth-oriented social media such as blogs and forums (Richards et al., 2016; Yeadon-Lee, 2016). They had usually gone through a period of confusion, searching for who they were and lacking words to express their identity. Terms such as “genderqueer” and “gender non-binary” helped them to name their identity and feel more secure with it. Thus, social media actually contributed to their emancipation (Shapiro, 2004). It should be kept in mind, however, that the participants were all higher educated. We suspect that for lower-educated young people, it may be much harder to come out as a person with a non-binary gender identity. A sure sign of this is that, even though we searched for participants in the queer world of Amsterdam and not in universities, our participants were still all higher educated. Participants’ ethnic background was varied (5 POC⁵ and 6 white people – see Table 1). This may mean that the level of acceptance in ethnic minority communities does not differ from that in native Dutch communities. We do not know. Further research should therefore take differences in class, education and ethnic background into account. We do know, however, that all the participants found in Amsterdam a place where they could live and be visible as gender non-binary people. In that sense, Amsterdam proved to be the liberating context of the city that the literature predicted it to be.

When telling us about their identities, participants expressed a need to belong. It was a relief for them to discover that there were terms that related to their non-binary identity position and that there were others who shared this positioning. Yet, this need for group belonging does not mean that they experience themselves as a separate and fixed category, like a third gender. Nor does it mean that their search for an identity is over, as if they have “found” their identity. Rather, they experience a continuous searching and switching of identities, identifying as more male or more female, as neither of the two or a mixture of both, depending on the context. In this, the pleasure of playing with gender boundaries and deconstructing them goes together with feelings of exclusion and insecurity in addition to a longing for belonging. However, the repetition of these acts of playfulness enables alternative performativity (like the example of drag in Butler’s work) that unsettles the repetitive power of oppressive and painful gender norms (Butler, 2006/1999).

In their exploration of their non-binary gender identity, they develop narratives about themselves. And in their narratives, they transcend dichotomized ideas of masculinity and femininity or of (binary) trans people and cis people. They develop, not one narrative, but a plurality of narratives by which they add to the complexity of the gender concept and redefine it. Also, in and through their narratives, they make their non-binary gender identity possible as a lived experience. They need words to exist. In their doing and undoing gender, to paraphrase Butler (2011), their narratives seem to function as a counternarrative (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002) to resist social stigma and as a source of resilience (Craig et al., 2015; Wagaman, 2016). They need their narratives because, even in Amsterdam, they meet with harassment, violence and discrimination. In that sense, a non-binary gender identity is still a stigmatized identity. Safe spaces where these young people can express their self-narratives are therefore very important. The online spaces, where gender diverse movements (including that of non-binary trans identities) flourish are key to providing support and education, distributing information and organizing activism – that is, however, for those who speak English and have online access. Further, there are certain contexts (e.g., Asian contexts, such as China) where stringent rules apply, often with content restrictions or censoring as a consequence (Cao & Guo, 2016). We, in line with Shapiro (2015), therefore conclude that the internet contributes to the empowerment of gender diverse people, but its power is somewhat limited. Thus, gender non-binary people do not flourish exclusively within the context of Amsterdam, but they thrive even more on the internet across the West, like for example, in Australian (Smith et al., 2014; Robinson et al., 2014) and American contexts (Shapiro, 2004).

In Amsterdam, there are also offline spaces serving as such safe zones, the most important ones being the squatter movement and queer events. Through these designated spaces, gender non-binary young adults claim a spot within the public sphere. These processes of normalization take gender and sexually diverse people (more or less) out of the margins and help normalize their narratives (Butler, 2015).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Afiah Vijlbrief

Afiah Vijlbrief is a qualitative researcher at Movisie, a Dutch knowledge institute offering a comprehensive approach of social issues. She works on diversity matters and policy and is specialized in gender and sexual diversity. She researches anti-discrimination interventions, specifically those that concern LGBTIQ+ youth emancipation.

Sawitri Saharso

Sawitri Saharso is Professor of Citizenship and Moral Diversity at the University of Humanistic Studies in Utrecht and Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology of the VU Amsterdam. She has published extensively on topics related to migration, diversity and gender. Her most recent publication is Coene, G. & Saharso, S. (2019) Gender and cultural understandings in medical non-indicated interventions: a critical discussion of attitudes towards non-therapeutic male circumcision and hymen (re)construction. Clinical Ethics vol.14, 1: pp. 33–41. She is editor-in-Chief of the journal Comparative Migration Studies. https://comparativemigrationstudies.springeropen.com/

Halleh Ghorashi

Halleh Ghorashi is Full Professor of Diversity and Integration in the Department of Sociology at the VU (Vrije Universiteit) Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She is the author and co-author of several books and has published many articles on topics such as identity, diasporic positioning and cultural diversity both inside and outside organizations. Her most recent international book publication is the edited volume: Contested Belonging: Spaces, Practices, Biographies (together with K. Davis & P. Smets, eds., Emerald 2018). In 2017, she received the prestigious VICI grant 2017 from NWO for her project: Engaged scholarship and narratives of change in comparative perspective.

Notes

1 Some department stores, for instance, have stopped displaying their products in gendered shopping sections. See https://groundswell.org/gender-fluidity/, accessed 19 May 2017.

2 Cis-, Latin for “on the same side” (Aultman, 2014: 61), meaning that one conforms with the biologically designated sex. Aultman,

B. (2014). CISgender. Transgender Studies Quarterly, 1(1-2), 61–62.

3 Different debates at the following Amsterdam venues: Felix Meritis (a European center for arts, culture and science), Club Church and the International Queer Migrant Film Festival at de Balie, a cultural venue.

4 ‘Queer’ – or identifying as such - is much used in Amsterdam as an overarching term when referring to identity, community, the GSD people, and so on.

5 POC, abbreviation for person of color or plural people of color. See, for example, Jackson, Y. (Ed.). (2006). Encyclopedia of multicultural psychology. Sage Publications.