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Genderqueer

'Genderqueer' is an umbrella term for people who place themselves outside or against the man/woman binary. The word stems from English-language queer activism of the 1990s and was long the main umbrella label for what is now more often called non-binary.

What is meant by it?

Those who call themselves genderqueer reject the prevailing man/woman categorisation — as a self-description, as a political position, or both. The label is deliberately fuzzy: 'queer' here refers to deliberately standing crosswise or outside the norm. That distinguishes genderqueer from more tightly defined terms such as agender or bigender, and places it closer to a cultural stance than to a delineated identity.

Distinction and overlap

In practice genderqueer overlaps strongly with non-binary. The English 'non-binary' became popular from around 2010 and has largely displaced 'genderqueer', especially among younger generations. Those who use the term genderqueer sometimes deliberately choose the older, more politically charged word and thereby suggest a link with queer theory as developed by authors such as Judith Butler.

Social and practical context

'Genderqueer' rarely appears as an option on official documents. In the Netherlands the registration recognises only man/woman, and very occasionally 'X' for intersex conditions. Pronouns among genderqueer persons vary widely: 'they/them', 'he', 'she', or no preference. The Transgender Act does not recognise a separate genderqueer registration.

Critical perspectives

Genderqueer arose within an academic tradition that explicitly sought to 'queer' — to estrange, disrupt, problematise. Critics point to a striking tension: where old queer theory regarded gender as socially constructed, the current identity discourse shifts towards gender as an inner essence. That is a considerable change of course that is rarely made explicit. Furthermore, the same applies here: biological sex is a separate category that is not undone by self-description.