"Hello Ladies and Gentlemen"... "Okay, I Might As Well Walk Out of The Room Already" : Struggles and Victories of Gender Non-binary Individuals in the Netherlands

L. Gijsen

This study uses comparative literature review and narrative analysis to examine the experiences of non-binary individuals living in the Netherlands. The research involved in depth-interviews with twelve Dutch narrators who do not exclusively identify as male or female. Previous studies have mainly focused on binary transgender people with research from a medical perspective. Sociological research with non-binary individuals are scarce, especially research on non-binary individuals in the Netherlands is lacking. In this research it is shown how agender, genderqueer, femme, non-binary, non-binary and man, genderfluid and people who do not prefer a gender identity term make their identity heard in a gender binary society. Words that reflect their identity is much needed to make their identities visible. They invent language themselves, but a collective effort is to create new words is needed to make non-binary individuals in the Netherlands heard more rapidly. Awareness need to be raised about gender diversity and language needs to be created to reflect the identities of all genders.