1 in 4 LGBTQ youth identify as nonbinary

Nonbinary flag. (Photo via BigStock)

In a study released to mark International Nonbinary People’s Day July 14, The Trevor Project published new research on the diversity of nonbinary youth. The report sheds light on the nuances of youth gender identity, pronoun usage, the consistency of nonbinary identity across race/ethnicity and age, as well how to implement better support for nonbinary youth mental health.

“Young people are using a variety of language to describe the nuances of their gender identity outside of the binary construction of gender. These data emphasize that, while there is certainly an overlap, youth understand ‘transgender’ and ‘nonbinary’ as distinct identity terms — and you cannot assume one’s identity simply based on the pronouns they use,” said Jonah DeChants, Research Scientist for The Trevor Project.

“These findings emphasize the need for policies that affirm nonbinary youth in their identities, such as respecting their pronouns and allowing them to change their name and gender marker on legal documents like driver’s licenses and birth certificates. Being that something as simple as respecting pronouns can be life-saving, we must work to expand training and improve understanding of transgender and nonbinary identities among schools, medical facilities, and youth-serving organizations and adults,” he added.

Key Findings:

-One in four LGBTQ youth (26%) in our sample of nearly 35,000 identified as nonbinary. An additional 20% reported that they are not sure or are questioning if they are nonbinary.

-While nonbinary identities have often been grouped under the umbrella term of “transgender,” our data show that only 50% of youth who identified as nonbinary also identified as transgender.

-The majority of nonbinary youth reported exclusively using pronouns outside of the gender binary, such as “they/them” (33%) or neopronouns (5%), such as “xe/xem.”

-When asked about ways other people can make them feel happy or euphoric about their gender, nonbinary youth overwhelmingly responded: having people in their life use the correct name and pronouns to refer to them.

-Nonbinary youth who reported that “no one” respected their pronouns had more than 2.5x the rate of attempting suicide compared to those who reported that “all or most of the people” they know respected their pronouns.