The earliest use of terms referring directly to non-binary seems to be around 2000, for example Haynes and McKenna's (2001) collection Unseen Genders: Beyond the Binaries.
Elisa Rae Shupe (formerly Jamie Shupe; born James Clifford Shupe) is a retired United States Army soldier who in 2016 became the first person in the United States to obtain legal recognition of a non-binary gender.
As it turns out, nonbinary people – like all LGBTQ people – have always existed, everywhere. Out & Equal has created a resource that traces nonbinary identities back to 2000 BCE and locates historical touchpoints of these identities.
Likely the oldest gender-neutral pronoun in the English language is the singular they, which was, for centuries, a common way to identify a person whose gender was indefinite. For a time in the 1600s, medical texts even referred to individuals who did not accord with binary gender standards as they/them.
The first known mention of the term gender fluidity was in gender theorist Kate Bornstein's 1994 book Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us. It was later used again in the 1996 book The Second Coming: A Leatherdyke Reader.
Many Marvel fans unfamiliar with the comics don't know this, but the character Loki is queer and always has been. Known as everyone's favorite shape-shifting God of Mischief, Loki was written as gender-fluid in the Marvel comics.
Geneticists have discovered that all human embryos start life as females, as do all embryos of mammals. About the 2nd month the fetal tests elaborate enough androgens to offset the maternal estrogens and maleness develops.
Non-gendered or nonbinary pronouns are not gender specific and are most often used by people who identify outside of a gender binary. The most common set of nonbinary pronouns is they/them/their used in the singular (e.g., Jadzia identifies as genderqueer; they do not see themselves as either a woman or a man).
Reasons for choosing gender neutral pronouns are complex and personal. Some people do it because they don't feel they fit into a gender. For others, it's a form of protest: they contest rigid gender expectations and would rather live without them.
The history of neopronouns
One of the first recorded uses of a neopronoun dates back to 1789 where one William H Marshall documented the use of “a” as a pronoun (used previously by John of Trevisa, a 14th century English writer). One of the oldest noted examples of a neopronoun is “thon”.
Nonbinary is a term used by people who identify as not strictly male or female, but instead fall somewhere else on the gender spectrum. Some may describe themselves as a combination of masculine and feminine, or as in-between these categories and some identify with neither.
The differentiation between gender and sex did not arise until the late 1970s, when researchers began using "gender" and "sex" as two separate terms, with "gender" referring to one's self-identity and "sex" referring to one's chromosomal makeup and sex organs.
In English, the four genders of noun are masculine, feminine, common, and neuter.
Demi Lovato, Sam Smith, Janelle Monáe, and Emma D'Arcy all identify as nonbinary. Others, like Ruby Rose and Nico Tortorella, have embraced a more fluid, label-free approach.
LGBTIQA+ 'LGBTIQA+' is an evolving acronym that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer/questioning, asexual.
Examples of people who defy traditional gender conventions exist across cultures and history. There are the Hijras of India, Ancient Egyptians who gender-swapped to get into the afterlife, and even a third gender portrayed in 18th century Italian art, to name a few.
She, her, hers and he, him, his are the most commonly used pronouns. Some people call these "female/feminine" and "male/masculine" pronouns, but many avoid these labels because, for example, not everyone who uses he feels like a "male" or "masculine." There are also lots of gender-neutral pronouns in use.
Intentional refusal to use someone's correct pronouns is equivalent to harassment and a violation of one's civil rights. The Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 expressly prohibits workplace discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.
Ze is pronounced like “zee” can also be spelled zie or xe, and replaces she/he/they. Hir is pronounced like “here” and replaces her/hers/him/his/they/theirs. Per/per/pers (“Kyla ate per food because per were hungry.”) Think of it as a shortened version of “person”.
Check through your work and replace 'he/she' with 'them' and if addressing letters or emails, use a gender-neutral address such as “To whom it may concern” or “Dear Student/Colleague”. Someone whose gender identity is the same as the sex they were assigned at birth. Non-trans is also used by some people.
When writing to a non-binary person in a formal context, you can omit the gendered courtesy titles “Mr.,” “Ms.” or “Mrs.” and instead use the individual's full name. Some people who don't identify with binary gender prefer an alternate courtesy title.
Genderless languages: Chinese, Estonian, Finnish, and other languages don't categorize any nouns as feminine or masculine, and use the same word for he or she in regards to humans.
These findings also apply to animals (via the unified theory) and provide the first evidence in support of the theory that the establishment of separate sexes stemmed from a genetic mutation in hermaphroditic genes that led to male and female sex chromosomes.
Those species that exhibit sexual reproduction have an evolutionary advantage over "cloners" in that there is more diversity in their offspring. This diversity allows the species to adapt more quickly to a changing environment, or to increase its chance of survival in the existing one.
We humans share 99.9% of our DNA with each other! And the 0.1% of DNA that is different between humans doesn't align neatly with race: the concept of race is not backed up by genetics. This makes us far too similar to one another to be considered different subspecies.