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Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Introducing Mxgender

We seem to be at the center of a storm of language shaping these last few months. Just weeks ago, Mx. joinedMr., Mrs., and Ms. in the Oxford Dictionary as a gender neutral title. Earlier this year, folks over here in CAYA Coven started using Priestx as a gender neutral title for our clergy people. It was exhilarating to have a word that feels like it describes me just right. However, we've been stuck for awhile as to what we should call ourselves as a group. I'm genderqueer. When I am part of a group that contains people who are metagender, agender, gender fluid, bigender, and more, what do we call ourselves collectively?

"Non-binary" describes us as what we are not, which I'm not a fan of. "Gender variant" suggests by implication that there exist a group of people who are "gender normal." "Gender diverse" sounds nice but is unfortunately vague. "Trans" and "trans*" are broad and clear, but not everyone who identifies as some non-binary gender identifies as trans.

Then, this last weekend, we had a Rainbow Trad Hot Tub Visioning. (Yes, you read that right.) As we were discussing gender and mulling over the various words we use, one awesome person (thanks, Root!) said this: "What about mxgender?" We paused. We all looked at each other. Hmmm. Mxgender, which sounds like mix-gender, a combination of genders- something quite a lot of us identify with? Mxgender, which draws on the already-known prefix "Mx."? Mxgender sounds like it could hold us all. It sounds like it could be home. 




Do you like "mxgender" as a collective way of describing us? What words do you use? Share in the comments!