Nonbinary people living in a binary world: Minority stress in public and gendered places

This article is the result of a study on minority gender identities conducted in Italy which involved 40 nonbinary individuals aged 19 to 36 years in a semi-structured interview. The research team comprised a diverse range of positionalities, including trans, nonbinary, queer, bisexual, lesbian, and cisgender heterosexual-allied researchers. It resulted in affirming how nonbinary gender identities are widely erased and invalidated in Western societies, due to binary normativity.

Many are the consequences of this erasing of diverse gender identities: the scholars analyzed, in particular, one recently discovered called "nonbinary minority stress". This minority stress is shared with all LGBTQI+ people. However for nonbinary people there is also the specificity of a gender identity which is not acknowledged by society, nor law. This is also to add to the experiencing daily of microaggressions, bullying, harassment, and discrimination.

The research also shows how many nonbinary individuals tend to prioritize the comfort of others in social interactions, by negotiating the disclosure of their identity to prevent others from feeling uneasy in their presence.

In conclusion, this essay directly addresses the inequities of society regarding public spaces and sports categories that may cause unique sources of stress for nonbinary people, manifesting at a structural and interpersonal level. Utilizing the nonbinary minority stress framework this study explores how the dichotomous gender division of public restrooms, store dressing rooms, locker rooms, and sports categories is associated with distal and proximal dimensions of minority stress.

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