What do you suppose is more likely: that for all of recorded human history, a not-insignificant percentage of the human population has been “non-binary”—neither male nor female, biology be damned—and they are all collectively emerging now? Or that spiking numbers of “neithers”—almost entirely among young people currently being indoctrinated by LGBT-infused curriculums—are being taught this stuff?
The term “non-binary,” by the way, was the successor to “gender-queer” and only emerged as a term used by activists in the 1990s. It was popularized by LGBT activist Riki Anne Wilchins, who used it in a 1995 essay in the inaugural issue of In Your Face, using it to refer to those who identified as either genderqueer or gender nonconforming. Now, however, the term is positively popular amongst the young people—especially since activists are no longer the fringe: they’re running the show.
The latest data from Guelph-Wellington-Dufferin Public Health highlights the effects. In the last three years, the number of students identifying as “non-binary” has tripled from 150 to 650 students—3.5% of the total, according to the Well-being and Youth Health Survey. According to Dufferin Child and Family Services CEO Jennifer Moore: “More organizations including ourselves have noticed an increase in 2SLGBTQ+ youth and especially youth identifying as non-binary and using a variety of pronouns. In response we have been expanding our programming at DCAFS to include parents and peer workers in order to meet some of these needs.”
Stevie Forbes-Roberts, a clinician who works with DCAFS and runs GLOW 2SLGBTQ+ Youth Group, sees this as a positive. “In general, I think we’re going to see more LGBTQ people come out at earlier ages, which for a lot of reasons is a good thing. We do see worse mental health outcomes for people who keep a secret that they feel ashamed of for 40, 50 years, which often happened in the past. We see that in high schools that there’s a group of queer and trans kiddos who are kind of protecting each other.”
