“Everything related to sex and gender in our society is divided into two little boxes, one for women and one for men. That determines a large part of our lives: how we dress, what we like and many other aspects”, says Andi Flores, a doctor and activist, in the video report that you can see on these lines. In her view, this "binary system" is a mistake.
Andi explains that her gender identity does not fall into either of those two categories. He defines himself as a non-binary person, that is, he does not feel like a man or a woman. And he warns: "There are more and more non-binary people, it is a reality to which you have to adapt, there is no other."
First of all, the vast majority are young: 95% are under 35 years old and three out of four were between 15 and 25 years old when they found the first label related to non-binaryism, according to a recent survey by the Ministry of Equality. In 2020, the Youth in Spain Report already pointed out that one in four young people does not feel 100% masculine or 100% feminine.
The LGTBphobia 2021-2022 report, published by Cogam this week, provides more data: 1.7% of students between the ages of 15 and 18 define themselves as "non-binary trans". That is to say, they are trans people because they do not identify with the gender that they were assigned at birth, but they do not make a transition from woman to man or vice versa, rather they prefer to get out of that dichotomy.
Along the same lines, half of all transgender people in the European Union identify as non-binary, as found in a study by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights.
When non-binarism has been discussed in the public debate, it has been as a result of controversy, without entering into a substantive debate. The Minister for Equality, Irene Montero, has used so-called "neutral" forms (those ending in "e") such as "everyone" or "hijes" to include precisely those people in several of her speeches, which has been criticized -when not ridiculed - by different political parties.
These language modifications, according to the group in question, have the objective of making it “more inclusive”. However, all this is part of a broader debate on whether or not grammar should be a tool against machismo or LGTBIphobia.
For some, these acronyms can be a mess of labels and new concepts that, moreover, do not stop growing. But for Andi, this diversity confirms that gender "is a wide spectrum of possibilities" in which each one should question themselves and define themselves freely.
In parallel, this doctor and activist defends that gender should lose importance in our society. "In the same way that in the past marital status had to be included in most official documents and now we no longer consider it necessary, gender would have to be increasingly irrelevant," concludes Andi.
