More than 1 million adults in the U.S. identify as nonbinary, according to a groundbreaking new study published Tuesday by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, the nation’s leading research center on sexual orientation and gender identity law and public policy.
Analyzing data on characteristics and demographics of LGBTQ adults in the U.S., the study, entitled “Nonbinary LGBTQ Adults in the United States,” found that around 11 percent of them do not fall into a binary definition of gender — that’s approximately 1.2 million people whose gender falls somewhere in between male and female, or somewhere completely different.
According to the study, the majority of nonbinary people are under the age of 29, urban and white.
“Nonbinary people make up a substantial part of the LGBTQ community, and they appear to experience similar kinds of vulnerabilities seen in the larger LGBTQ population,” Bianca D.M. Wilson, senior scholar of public policy at the Williams Institute,” said in a statement.
“More research is needed to understand whether there are unique needs among cisgender and transgender nonbinary people compared to each other and to their binary-identified LGBTQ counterparts,” added Wilson, the lead author of the study.
The study used data collected from 2016 to 2018 from two population-based surveys — Generations and TransPop — and looked at characteristics of LGBTQ adults, ages 18-60, who identify as nonbinary.
The Generations study is the first long-term, five-year study to examine the health and well-being across three generations of lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals in the U.S., while the TransPop study is a first-of-its-kind survey on the health of the U.S. transgender population.
Researchers with the Williams Institute found that a greater percentage of nonbinary lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer adults are cisgender rather than transgender.
Nearly one-third of transgender adults identify as nonbinary, but many cisgender LGBQ adults also identify as nonbinary: approximately 58 percent of all nonbinary LGBQ adults are cisgender and 42 percent are transgender.
When asked to describe their sexual orientation, the majority of nonbinary adults (31 percent) said they were queer, while 17 percent of them said bisexual, 17 percent said pansexual and 14 percent of them said asexual.
“Identities and terms related to gender and sexuality shift across time,” said study author Ilan H. Meyer.
“Our study found nonbinary adults tend to be younger, but as the use and acceptance of gender nonbinary terms continues to grow, we may see changes in numbers and characteristics of LGBTQ nonbinary people,” added Meyer, who is the institute’s distinguished senior scholar of public policy.
According to GLAAD, “nonbinary” is a term used by people who “experience their gender identity and/or gender expression as falling outside the categories of man and woman.”
The term is slowly becoming more common, as society becomes more inclusive of LGBTQ identities.
Last month, pop superstar Demi Lovato announced that they were nonbinary on an episode of the “4D with Demi Lovato” podcast.
“I feel that this best represents the fluidity I feel in my gender expression and allows me to feel most authentic and true to the person I both know I am, and am still discovering,” they said.
Since the U.S. Census only asks if respondents are “female” or “male,” there’s very little data on adults who don’t identify as either.
Key findings from the study can provide important insight into a group who has been historically overlooked in the U.S.: around 1.2 million adults who reject the binary classification.
“That number says, ‘This is part of who you’re talking about when executive orders are signed to protect people against discrimination,’” study author Wilson told The Washington Post.
Story by Muri Assunção, New York Daily News.
