Event Breaking the Binary

Los Angeles

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Breaking the Binary - August 18th, 2010 / 7:30 p.m.

— Aye Robin and Charisse Delk speak about the gender binary system

we all live in and give us reasons to break out of it

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Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays

Male and Female. More than we know, our lives, are conditioned by our ideas about these opposite poles of gender. (To see how conditioned, take a look at the gender neutral pronouns in paragraph three!) But there are many people who do not fit neatly into either/or categories of male or female, masculine or feminine. Marginalizing them, we miss all the unique variations that occur in biology and behavior. We damage people by forcing them to conform to these ideas. We limit their, and our own, possibilities.

But society is changing. PFLAG Los Angeles members Aye Robin and Charisse Delk will discuss the various ways in which people express their own identity beyond the binary and outline strategies we can use to help them.

Aye Robin has been a member of PFLAG Los Angeles since 2008, when the bitter fight over Proposition 8 motivated hir and hir family to find support and empowerment at our meetings. In 2009, Aye met Charisse Delk through the Gay Straight Alliance Network's Activist camp. President of hir* high school's Gay Straight Alliance, Aye became a trainer for the Gay Straight Alliance Network in which xe* is joined by Charisse , also an LGBT rights activist in her high school. Now Santa Monica College students, they continue to lead Queer Youth Empowerment Summits all over Southern California.

Taking the next step in activism, they have formed a new non-profit, Breaking the Binary, designed to educate and support trans, gender queer and intersex youth as well as their friends, family, and partners. Breaking the Binary plans open support meetings for family and friends of trans, gender queer and intersex youth and their allies.

Among the topics they will discuss are the gender binary system and how we fit; gender identity versus gender expression; gender neutral pronouns; what it means to be gender queer; what it means to be transgender; and how to be a respectful trans ally.

If you are tired of living in a pink and blue world, come to our August meeting and support these two courageous young people in creating a world where everyone can be themselves.

*Gender neutral pronouns that replace “his,” “her,” (hir) and “he,” “she,” (xe).

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