# What Is a 'Binary' Person? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 27, 2019, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-binary-person/836137 "2019-06-27T02:32:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2019, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-binary-person/836137/21 "2019-06-28T00:21:13Z")
> [@zimaane](#): > > I get the impression that the term ‘nonbinary’ as it relates to gender identity and expression actually gained wide use before the term ‘binary’ was used (in the same domain), and that ‘binary’ developed because referring to someone as un-nonbinary is just not going work. Agree, except that, in a sense, “male” and “female” are the words we’ve always used for “binary.” In the broader sense, “binary” refers to any time there are two mutually exclusive alternatives, where you have to be one or the other (but not both): on or off, true or false, black or white (no shades of gray), 1 or 0. In the sex/gender sense, the two alternatives are male or female, and the common assumption among many people has been that everyone is unambiguously either one or the other of those two alternatives. Someone who believes that neither one of those categories really, completely applies to them, then, might describe themselves as “non-binary.” By analogy, someone who believes that one of those categories _does_ apply to them might describe themselves as “binary”; but more often they’d just describe themselves as “male” or “female.” ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2019, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-binary-person/836137/22 "2019-06-28T01:42:07Z")
> [@Filbert](#): > > :dubious: Cite? > > TERF; Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist. Some may well be gay, but I’ve never heard a definition of TERF that requires it. Good point. :smack: Although a good many TERFs I’ve run into are [political lesbians](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_lesbianism), something I do find baffling. However, I think we can all safely say that they’re all obnoxious kooks. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2019, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-binary-person/836137/23 "2019-06-28T04:26:20Z")
Some of those obnoxious kooks are friends and allies of mine. _sigh_ But yeah their fucking intractability w/regards to trans women has become a dealbreaker. I recognize the right to say “we want to organize as women, _by which we mean_ people who have had the lifetime experience of being treated and regarded as women”, and with that qualifier to say “that doesn’t mean you, **AHunter3** , we don’t care how you fucking identify”, and alongside of that, “it doesn’t mean you either, transgender woman”. Problem is, they aren’t _saying_ that; they’re saying “You ( :pointing to transgender woman: ) are not a woman, you’re a man”. ---
**Author:** ![ALOHA\_HATER](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/76d3ee/32.png) [@ALOHA\_HATER](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ALOHA_HATER)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2019, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-binary-person/836137/24 "2019-06-28T14:28:34Z")
Identity is tricky and the word gender is impossible to define. There are shades that you’ll never get to see unless you ask (tactfully)–someone might call themselves (for example) a trans woman for the sake of simplicity but identify as nonbinary transfemme. Someone might look and dress like a little girl and be AFAB but be totally man-gender and use boy pronouns. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-binary-person/836137.md?page=1)