Agender

Agender describes a person who does not have a gender identity. This means the person considers themself neither a man, a woman or any other gender.^[1] (The prefix "a-" means 'no' or 'none,' so "a-gender" means 'no gender'.) They might identify as a non-binary gender, or they might feel they belong to no gender at all.^[2]

The agender pride flag

Agender people are sometimes called "genderless", "genderqueer", or "ungendered". Some agender people may also identify themselves as transgender. Others do not, because they feel "transgender" implies that they identify as a specific gender.

Diversity

Agender people are diverse in many ways. They do not all have the same sexuality, use the same pronouns, or feel the same about their bodies.

Some agender people experience gender dysphoria if they are unable to express their identity comfortably. Some wish to change their bodies to feel more comfortable, while others do not.^[3]

Different agender people use different pronouns. Many use "they/them". However, others prefer unique pronouns called neopronouns (like "xe/xer" or "ze/zem"). Some use conventional pronouns (such as he/him or she/her) or uncommon pronouns (such as one/one's or it/its).

Gender is not the same as sexuality - so being agender is not the same as being asexual. An agender person might be asexual, but they might also identify as any other sexuality.

Etymology

The first use of the word "agender" was in the year 2000 on an internet forum called UseNet to describe God. It was first used to describe a person in 2005, again on the forum UseNet in a discussion about faith.^[4]

Related pages

• Gender identity
• Gender dysphoria
• LGBT
• Neutrois