Bigender

Most used non-controversial Bigender flag - unknown creator

**Bigender** is a gender on the multigender spectrum describing someone who has two distinct gender identities. Someone who is bigender can experience any two genders simultaneously or be fluid between them both, which would also fit under the genderfluid label. They also don't have to experience both genders at an equal intensity. An example of this could be feeling both male and non-binary, but feeling around 80% non-binary and 20% male, which would still make the individual fit the definition of bigender.

Similar terms would include trigender (3 genders), quadgender (4 genders), multigender (2 or more genders), pangender ('all' genders to an extent), and more.

## Modifiers

> **Bigenderflux** describes someone who experiences two genders that both fluctuate in intensity

> **Bigenderfluix** describes someone who experiences two genders that are fluid and fluctuate

## History & Coining

One of the first ever uses of the term bigender came from a trans organisation known as the Human Outreach and Achievement Institute during the 1980s. They defined the term 'bigenderist' as being a type of androgyne. At the time, androgyne was defined as "a person who can comfortably express either alternative gender role in a variety of socially acceptable environments."

The definition of bigender that we know today comes from trans man Gary Bowen's 1995 publication, 'Dictionary of Words for Masculine Women'. Here, bigender was defined as 'having two genders, exhibiting cultural characteristics of male and female roles'.

A 1997 paper concerning the "gender continuum" in 'International Journal of Transgenderism' stated that that "a person who feels or acts as both a woman and a man may identify as bi-gendered." The paper also described individuals who were 'genderblended', being both binary genders but either "more man than woman" or "more woman than man".

Moving on, a 1999 survey conducted by the San Francisco Department of Public Health observed that, among the transgender community, less than 3% of those who were assigned male at birth and less than 8% of those who were assigned female at birth identified as bigender.

In a 2010 encyclopedia, bigender is listed as a type of androgyne gender: "Androgyne identities include pangender, bigender, ambigender, nongendered, agender, gender fluid, or intergender."

In 2015, an entry for "bigender" was added to Dictionary.com, defined as "a person who has two gender identities or some combination of both."

## Flags & Symbols

There are many bigender flags, many of which have no confirmed meaning. Included here will be some of the most common or meaningful flags.

The first ever bigender flag was made by no-bucks-for-this-doe on an unknown date before July 30th, 2014. Most of its colours have no confirmed meaning. Whilst the flag is still widely used, it is now considered controversial as the creator received allegations of being abusive and transphobic.

The most popular alternate bigender flag was created by an unknown individual on or before August 23rd, 2015. It also has no confirmed color meanings.

An additional bigender flag was proposed by Tumblr user lestis on August 31st, 2019, with the following meanings. Red represents feminine or feminine-aligned identities. Red-orange represents combination and fluidity. Pear represents community and allyship. Yellow is a common color in flags used to represent non-binary communities. White represents non-binary identities. Yellow-green represents presentation, and is meant to highlight the diverse presentation of bigender people. Blue represents masculine or masculine-aligned identities.

The most common bigender symbol is a mix of female (Venus) symbol and male (Mars) symbol. The symbol is most commonly associated with bigender but it is also sometimes used to represent intersex or transgender. It can also be interpreted as representing heterosexuality. It is the botanical symbol for hermaphrodite.

## Resources

https://nonbinary.miraheze.org/wiki/Bigender

https://lgbta.wikia.org/wiki/Bigender

https://gender.wikia.org/wiki/Bigender

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-binary\_gender#Definitions\_and\_identity

http://www.bigender.net/forum/

Alt Bigender - Letis