Genderqueer describes a person whose gender falls outside the categories of man and woman. Someone genderqueer may feel like neither, both, a mix or something else entirely. Merriam-Webster defines it as “being a person whose gender identity cannot be categorized as solely male or female.”
The word is older than most people think. On Oct. 2, 1995, a short item in The Washington Times attributed this line to activist Riki Anne Wilchins: “It’s high time ‘genderqueers’ came out of the closets, out of the shadows and out of the margins.” That citation comes from the American Library Association’s Rainbow Round Table. Back then, genderqueer was a rallying cry as much as a personal label.
What Genderqueer Means
Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries defines genderqueer as an adjective for someone choosing not to be identified as either male or female, “but instead choosing to be neither, both or partly male and partly female.” It lists non-binary as a synonym. Merriam-Webster dates the word’s first known use to 1995.
Dictionaries flatten things, though. The Trans Journalists Association’s stylebook says that “similar to (though not synonymous with) nonbinary, genderqueer describes both a specific identity and a broad category of people who identify as neither men nor women.” In practice, that means one rule. Use the word a person uses for themself.
Some genderqueer people also call themselves trans, and some don’t. The TJA gives the same warning about nonbinary people: don’t call someone trans unless they describe themself that way. Journalist Lewis Raven Wallace, whose bio describes him as white and transgender, wrote in the Columbia Journalism Review in 2019: “I came out as genderqueer in the year 1999.”
Riki Anne Wilchins, Gendertrash and Who Coined Genderqueer
The Canadian LGBTQ2+ archive The ArQuives dates the word to the early 1990s and credits Wilchins with coining it. The archive quotes Wilchins describing genderqueer people as “the kind of gendertrash society rejected.”
That word, gendertrash, was also the name of a Toronto zine. It ran five issues from 1993 to 1995, and the welcome poem in its first issue greeted “gender queers.” Editor Xanthra Phillippa was frustrated by the distance between lesbian and gay communities and people who didn’t identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. She wrote that “gender queers or gender outlaws are what we & only we are, since lesbians & gays seem to think that queer means lesbian/gay.”
Writing for the ALA’s Rainbow Round Table in a 2017 “Word of the Week” post, Emilia Marcyk pointed to the 1995 newspaper line as an early printed use. The term was “undoubtedly used before that date,” she added.
From Activist Slogan to Gender Identity
Genderqueer started as a descriptive adjective and became an identity category, The ArQuives says. For some people it’s a third gender. Others reject gender entirely, and others sit somewhere between female and male. The archive calls genderqueer an umbrella term that covers all of them. In 2002, Alyson Books published the anthology GenderQueer: Voices From Beyond the Sexual Binary, edited by Joan Nestle, Clare Howell and Wilchins, according to its library catalog record.
| Year | Genderqueer milestone | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Toronto zine gendertrash welcomes “gender queers” | The ArQuives |
| 1995 | The Washington Times prints a line attributed to Riki Anne Wilchins about “genderqueers” | ALA Rainbow Round Table |
| 2002 | GenderQueer anthology published by Alyson Books | Texas A&M University Libraries catalog |
| 2010 | Marilyn Roxie creates the first version of the genderqueer flag | Marilyn Roxie |
| 2011 | Roxie releases the third and final flag design | Marilyn Roxie, The ArQuives |
| 2015 | Genderqueer added to the Oxford English Dictionary | ALA Rainbow Round Table |
| 2016 | Genderqueer added to Merriam-Webster | ALA Rainbow Round Table |
Genderqueer vs. Nonbinary: Same Umbrella, Different Roots
Oxford lists nonbinary as a synonym for genderqueer. The TJA says the two are similar but not synonymous. Both can describe people outside the man/woman binary, and plenty of people use both. Neither word tells you everything about a person’s relationship to gender. See Gayety’s guides to what non-binary means, the nonbinary flag and the bigender flag.
The real difference is history. Genderqueer carries the word “queer” and the 1990s activism of zines like gendertrash. Flag designer Marilyn Roxie says the flag’s lavender stripe “also represents the ‘queer’ in genderqueer.” Neither label is more correct. Listen for the one a person uses.
Genderqueer Pronouns: They/Them, He, She or a Mix
There is no required set of genderqueer pronouns. People may use they/them, he/him, she/her, neopronouns or more than one set. Lewis Raven Wallace’s Columbia Journalism Review guide advises asking for people’s pronouns and then using them correctly, without qualification. Pronouns alone don’t tell you someone’s gender.
The Genderqueer Flag’s Lavender, White and Green Stripes
Marilyn Roxie created the first genderqueer flag in June 2010 and the third and final version in June 2011, according to Roxie’s own flag page and The ArQuives. The Human Rights Campaign’s flag guide summarizes the stripes the same way. Here is what each color means, in Roxie’s terms.
| Stripe | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Lavender (#b57edc) | Androgynes and androgyny (a mix of blue and pink), plus the “queer” in genderqueer |
| White (#ffffff) | Agender identity, echoing the white on the transgender flag |
| Dark chartreuse green (#4a8123) | Identities defined outside of and without reference to the binary |
The colors represent related experiences rather than three separate kinds of people. More on the design is in Gayety’s genderqueer flag guide. Our roundup of 22 Pride flags places it alongside the genderfluid flag.
Writing About Genderqueer People Without Getting It Wrong
Use genderqueer as an adjective, as in “a genderqueer artist.” The TJA lists it that way. Use a person’s current name and pronouns, including when writing about their past, and don’t guess anyone’s identity from clothing or appearance. Unsure about a term? Wallace’s CJR column suggests looking it up yourself before asking a trans person to explain it. He calls it the “TGI Test.” More explainers live in Gayety’s culture section.
Genderqueer FAQ: Pronouns, Flag and Nonbinary
What does genderqueer mean?
Genderqueer describes a gender outside the categories of man and woman. A person may understand their gender as neither, both, between or beyond those categories.
Is genderqueer the same as nonbinary?
They overlap, and some people use both. Genderqueer has roots in 1990s queer activism, and the words can carry different personal meanings. Use the label a person uses for themself.
Is genderqueer part of the transgender umbrella?
Some genderqueer people also call themselves transgender, and some do not. Genderqueer alone doesn’t tell you whether someone uses the word trans.
What pronouns do genderqueer people use?
There is no single set. Genderqueer people may use they/them, he/him, she/her, neopronouns or a mix. Ask rather than guess.
Who created the genderqueer flag?
Marilyn Roxie created the flag, with a first version in 2010 and the final version in 2011. Its stripes are lavender, white and dark chartreuse green.
Who coined the term genderqueer?
Riki Anne Wilchins is usually credited, and a line attributed to Wilchins used it in print in 1995. The Toronto zine gendertrash had already welcomed “gender queers,” as two words, in 1993.
