The Fight for First

 

[This article is the third entry in Season 3 of LGBT by the Numbers, which explores the results of the Gender Census, an annual online survey of people whose gender isn’t strictly male or female.

So far, I’ve introduced Season 3 and discussed the results from the 2024 Gender Census. My articles about last year's Gender Census provide a thorough discussion of nonbinary identity terms.]

 

 

Between 2013 and 2015, the umbrella term preferred by a majority of people with a gender outside the binary appears to have changed from genderqueer to nonbinary.

Whether you believe that’s true depends on how much you trust the results of the pilot Gender Census from 2013.

 

 

Genderqueer refers to someone whose gender identity or expression falls outside the boundaries of what is typically considered male or female. 

Nonbinary refers to someone whose gender identity isn’t exclusively male or female.

These terms are similar, but not identical. Some people with a binary gender identify as genderqueer because they engage in gender expression in nonconforming way, like tomboys and femboys do.

 

 

Eleven years ago, Cassian administered the first Gender Census in 2013. 

At the time, Barack Obama was president, and I was studying journalism at Kansas State University.

That year, on this blog, I wrote a series on Julian Assange, discussed revelations from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, and began covering the US military prison at Guantanamo.

 

 

 

In the 2013 Gender Census, 58% of respondents identified as genderqueer.

Genderqueer was the only identity term that received more than 50% that year.

Nonbinary came in second with 39%.

 

There was no Gender Census in 2014.

 

Cassian administered the second Gender Census in 2015.

That year, Nonbinary took first place with 64%.

Genderqueer came in second with 41%.

 

 

 

You can click on the graph to view a larger version of it. 

 

Cassian has administered a Gender Census every year since 2015, and Nonbinary has been the top identity term in the Gender Census since 2015.

Therefore, the most popular umbrella term for people with a gender outside the binary appears to have changed around 2014. 

 

 

This tentative conclusion appears plausible.

Kye Rowan, a nonbinary and intersex person, created the nonbinary flag in 2014.

It would make sense that this event coincided with the rise in popularity of the term.

 

 

 The Nonbinary Flag

 

 

The genderqueer flag was created a few years earlier.

Marilyn Roxie, a genderqueer person, created the genderqueer flag in 2011.

 

The Genderqueer Flag

 

 

 

 

 

Reasons for Caution

 

There are a few reasons to treat the results of the 2013 survey with caution.

Last year, Cassian described the 2013 survey as, “more of a pilot survey that informed a better survey in 2015.”

 

Fewer people responded to the survey in 2013 than any of the surveys that followed.

Only 2,061 people took part in the survey, compared to 2,901 in 2015.

The number people who completed each Gender Census is shown in the graph and table below.

That being said, 2,061 respondents is still a good size for a poll, even if it was surpassed by the number of people who completed the survey in subsequent years.

 

 

 

 

So what can we conclude?

 

As far as I can tell, the data from the Gender Census appears to show a shift around 2014 when Nonbinary surpassed Genderqueer as the preferred umbrella term for people who don’t identify with a binary gender.

 

 

It’s worth noting that even though genderqueer lost its top spot, it remains a popular term among nonbinary people.

Genderqueer received 33% in the 2024 Gender Census, making it the seventh most commonly chosen term in the survey.

 

 

Only three identity terms have ever been chosen by more than 50% of respondents in the Gender Census.

Genderqueer received more than 50% in 2013.

Nonbinary has received more than 60% every year, beginning in 2015. 

Queer has received more than 50% every year, beginning in 2022.

 

 

 

 

 

Going Forward

 

From here on out, we’ll focus on Gender Census data from 2015 onward.

Graphs in subsequent articles generally won’t include data from the 2013 survey, based on concerns explained above, but discussions in those articles will reference data from 2013 when relevant.

 

In the next article, we’ll begin our exploration of the top identity terms from the 2024 Gender Census and examine how they have performed over time.

 

 

Evil Sorcerers Need to Rediscover the Art of Subtlety

 

By Malakai Castlequill

 

(What follows is either a mediocre attempt at satire, or an opinion column originally published in the Wizarding Journal, "The Astute Owl.")  

 

 

In recent years, evil sorcerers have become far too ambitious.

Worse than that, their dastardly works have become boring and unoriginal.

 

I know this unpopular opinion will prompt bickering within the pages of this journal, and a flame war beneath the online version of this article.

But someone needed to say it.

 

We are deeply familiar with the scourges we have unleashed on humanity in recent years.

It almost seems superfluous to list them here.

But, hopefully, seeing them all in one place will allow us to view them in a new light.

 

One over-ambitious sorcerer, eager to make a name for himself, unleashed a global pandemic that killed millions of people.

That was, quite literally, overkill.

Although, even I have to admit that getting almost half of the commoners to regard the virus as a hoax, an irrational pretext for government oppression, or a superweapon intentionally unleashed by their own governments, was a mischievous touch.

But pandemics are tough, because a large enough death toll disrupts the fundamental economic lines of commerce.

And even sorcerers need to eat.

 

While we’re on the topic of commerce, getting a ship stuck in the Suez Canal, temporarily blocking international shipping, is the kind of curse that is more appropriate to the scale of mischief we should be looking to create.

Put simply, it was quite funny.

Although, it appears that happened on its own, without help from any of us.

 

 

We really need to learn to stay out of politics.

I know that’s an unpopular opinion, but hear me out.

 

I understand why one of our rank chose to make Donald Trump president.

“Wouldn’t it be funny if we got them to elect that oafish buffoon president?”

It didn’t take much to push Trump over the edge to victory in 2016.

But once again, the curse was too large.

That buffoon captured everyone’s attention, ours included, for four long years.

You could barely think of anything else, as he chattered away in his selfish, stupid, and incoherent ways.

 

 

Regardless of the wisdom of making Trump president the first time, it was really a mistake to do it again.

“Wouldn’t it be funny if we got them to elect Trump, again?”

No, Clyde, it wouldn’t.

We’ve all seen this movie before, and quite frankly, it wasn’t worth our time, the first time.

 

 

Finally, we arrive at the most over-done curses, the ‘natural’ disasters.

Just because one person was mean to you at Mardi Gras once, Steve, doesn’t mean you should send waves of hurricanes to havoc New Orleans every few years.

The collateral suffering is disproportionate.

Besides, that rude salesman moved to Texas years ago, a sign that once again, sorcerers need to start paying attention to the finer details.

 

And of course that copycat Joanne started sending hurricanes to ravage Florida, after she received some unexpected charges on her hotel bill during her Palm Beach vacation.

 

So far, we have been able to pass off our recent rise in disproportionate retribution as the consequences of ‘global warming,’ but that trick won’t work forever.

 

 

 

A Personal Approach

 

So, how should we misuse the dark magic at our disposal?

 

Often, we are motivated by a desire to punish a specific person who has wronged us. This is as true for magic users as for everyone else.

Our responses should be petty, vindictive, and personal.

But above all else, they should be targeted.

 

No more mass casualty events.

No more showing off the upper bounds of our powers.

No more raising suspicions about magical interference.

 

Here are a few examples of the kinds of curses we should be using more often in the future, rather than the comic book villainy that has become far too common in recent times.

Once again, our curses should be directed towards the person we despise, not the entire city or nation where they live.

 

Every third night after a rainstorm, the cursed person will be unable to fall asleep for hours on end, no matter what they do, and once they fall asleep they will experience nothing but nightmares every time they enter the REM stage of sleep.

 

A curse that will give someone intense and painful leg cramps every time they wake up for three weeks straight, before those cramps vanish, without a trace.

 

A curse that will give someone a faint and constant headache that will never go away, no matter what they do.

 

A curse that the next time the cursed person has a medical problem, their medical provider won’t be able to determine the cause of their symptoms.

 

A curse that the next time they need to call attention to an important problem, everyone will disregard their warnings, while considering the cursed person crazy, hysterical, or stupid.

 

A curse that will prevent someone from ever receiving a raise or promotion for the rest of their life.

 

A curse that will prevent anyone from viewing the cursed person as a success, no matter what they are able to accomplish.

 

 

These curses are specific, creative, vindictive, and perhaps most importantly of all, plausibly deniable.

If someone complains about any of these things, no one will suspect it to be the work of a sorcerer’s revenge.

 

It’s long since time we stopped showing off, and relearned the art of subtlety.

 

If you have ideas for creative, personal curses, leave them in the comments below.

 

 

Malakai Castlequill’s signature weekly column, “Magically Incorrect,” has generated lively and spirited debate among readers of the Astute Owl since he began writing for the journal in 2004.

Castlequill is part of our flock of award-winning columnists available to Astute Owl subscribers for the low price of $500 a month.