Non-Binary Identity, A Familiar Story in the New Yorker

News Commentary

An article in The New Yorker called “A Year without a Name” about a female with a non-binary identity follows a pattern of other non-binary identity stories. The writer struggles with self-hatred, identity instability, body dissociation, and confusion.

Twenty years later, my girlhood was dissolving, with no clear alternative in place. I felt less embodied than ever, less able to gather myself into one person. And yet the idea of “transitioning”—changing my name, starting hormones, getting surgery—sucked me into a thought circuit with no end and no exit.

The concerning issue here is that some of these descriptions may indicate other mental health problems than gender dysphoria alone. These issues could also be related to body dysmorphic disorder and borderline personality disorder (known for identity instability). Plastic surgery does not help body dysmorphic disorder in the long run. Other examples showing a similar pattern in non-binary-identified people of depression, anxiety, identity instability, and an unhealthy need for validation can be found on GHQ here.

More examples of identity instability in The New Yorker article:

I taped the name to the wall inside my closet, so I’d have to look at it whenever I changed clothes. Sometimes I admired the shapes of the letters; sometimes I averted my eyes. Cyrus remained a stranger whose ways I was trying to understand. How would he wear his hair? Would he be on time? Would he be a vegetarian? Would he buy steak at the grocery store and cook it alone? Would he meditate? Would he have sex with strangers and tell no one it had happened? Would he have sex with men? Would he wear sneakers? Would he value success? Would he keep his word? Would he lift weights? Would he go running whenever he wanted, even in the dark, even when it was raining? What truth did the name contain? Was Cyrus inside of me already, or had I invented him?

There are a few studies that show those with non-binary identities have worse mental health than binary trans people. From the APA website (emphasis ours):

The lack of cultural visibility of non-binary identities may make the identity development process more difficult for non-binary individuals. Further, even after coming to terms with their own identity, they may face additional stress from having to frequently “come out” as non-binary, even in LGBTQ contexts, and from being mis-gendered or misunderstood.

Research on the mental health of people with non-binary gender identities is limited and generally includes only those who also identify as transgender. From this research, it appears overall, non-binary people may face both greater levels of minority stress and unique forms of minority stress, in comparison to binary transgender peers, a factor which has been (associated with higher levels of suicidality (Tebbe & Moradi, 2016). it appears that non-binary transgender people experience greater risk for negative mental health outcomes than their binary transgender peers (James, Herman, Rankin et al, 2016). For example, in one study, over half of the respondents reported clinical levels of depression and over one third of the respondents reported clinical levels of anxiety (Budge, Rossman, & Howard, 2014).

Researches tend to blame “minority stress” for an increase in problems among non-binary-identified people rather than consider there are serious mental health issues the person and therapist needs to explore internally. This puts the blame on the many people in society who do not believe there are “dozens of genders,” who don’t want to be forced to use the multiple pronouns that go along with these identities. And it calls into question the right they have to hold these views.

References:

Dunham, C.G. (2019, August 12). A Year without a Name. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/08/19/a-year-without-a-name

Webb, A., Matsuno, Budge, S., Krishnan, M., Balsam, K., & American Psychological Association (2015). Non-Binary Gender Identities: Fact Sheet. Retrieved from https://www.apadivisions.org/division-44/resources/advocacy/non-binary-facts.pdf

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In Increase Trans Females Tags trans mental health, trans ideology