It’s time for our series of posts here at Jessica Who?, titled “Word of the Week”. In these short articles, from here on out published each Friday, I will explore the various labels and umbrella terms used to label us. By doing this, I hope to educate not only myself, but also anyone who may not be familiar with these terms. Feel free to add your own knowledge to each post by leaving a comment 
. The label that we will be examining is: genderqueer.
Standard Definition
Genderqueer has not been officially entered into the dictionary
Derogatory?
No
What’s It Really Mean?
When someone identifies as genderqueer they can be identifying as a combination of male and female or neither. There are some who believe that genderqueer represents a third gender and thus prefer gender neutral pronouns such as “ze” and “zir”.
It should be noted that genderqueer is not the only way to describe someone who identifies as neither wholly female nor wholly male and we will cover some of these terms in the coming weeks.
Genderqueer identifying people typically reject the notion of a gender binary yet I’ve seen this term used to encompass all types of gender identity.
My Take
This is a relatively new term to me and I was inspired to include it in this week’s “Word” by Jessee Vasold’s story. I don’t have a lot of experience with the term but I think that to a degree it expresses how I feel inside in that I am very happy expressing both my male and female sides.
I will definitely spend more time doing some research about this and I hope that you all have some great comments about the word.
Your Take
Have you anything to add? Please leave your take on this word in the comments section, I hope we can open up a dialogue and learn from each other while educating the masses.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Hi Jessica,
I’ve heard this term a little, mainly coming out of the States (I’m UK). I still prefer transgendered or tgirl or boy as the umbrella term. I would be interested to hear you compare the two side by side so that we could specifically examine what differences you see between them
My doubts around the new term stem mainly from the suffix queer as I still identify that as as gay ~ (Am I old fashioned in that?) Nothing wrong with being gay of course but I spend a lot of time trying to educate the people I meet that the majority of crossdressers, even the majority of the entire transgendered spectrum are hetrosexual. Our wives tend to prefer it that way!
Hugs TinaCortina xx