Beyond the Binary. Challenges and Opportunities of a Generational Revolution

Editors: Mariella Popolla (University of Genoa, Italy), Fau Rosati (University of Rome Sapienza), Emanuela Abbatecola (University of Genoa, Italy), Arantxa Grau i Muñoz (University of Valencia, Spain), Barbara Risman (University of Illinois at Chicago, USA).

Nonbinary is an umbrella term encompassing a wide spectrum of gender experiences, united by a self-perception that transcends the male/female binary (Richards et al., 2016). Conceptually, in some contexts, non-binary is part of the trans umbrella, while in others, non-binary constitutes an umbrella in itself.

Over time, however, the nonbinary umbrella has increasingly come to be understood as parallel to that of trans identities, with some areas of overlap. This shift is due, in part, to the growing visibility of nonbinary people in the Western world (Risman et. al, 2022), supported by an expanding body of representation—media, literary, and embodied—produced both by and for the community (Borrelli, 2024). Yet—or perhaps precisely for this reason— in some areas nonbinary experiences are subject to intensified processes of invisibilization, if not outright erasure, at both social and institutional levels, whereas in others nonbinary people are now experiencing backlash for their visibility.

The erasure of nonbinary identities is rooted in a cisgenderist (Ansara & Berger, 2016) and heteropatriarchal matrix of oppression that aligns the experiences of (trans and) nonbinary individuals with those of other structurally marginalized groups, including women, lesbians, people with disabilities, fat, and racialized individuals (Baril, 2015). The intersection of these identity axes often results in compounded forms of marginalization (Rosati, 2024). This dynamic is particularly evident in the repressive policies promoted by far-right and reactionary governments—from the United States to Europe—which have contributed to the institutionalization of racism and gender-based and sexual violence. In tandem, the rise of anti-gender movements (Prearo, 2020)—coalitions formed by Catholic fundamentalist groups, anti-abortion and anti-choice campaigns, and trans-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs)—has gained increasing influence both within and beyond institutional settings, while disseminating conspiratorial narratives and fueling a climate of hatred and moral panic (Garbagnoli, 2017; Kováts & Põim, 2015). Within this sociopolitical context, nonbinary (and in some countries more broadly trans) identities have become one of the primary targets of repressive legislative measures, often in juridical systems that had never formally recognized them (Schillaci, 2021). Such attacks function as a mechanism to displace broader social anxieties—such as those stemming from economic or ecological crises—onto the specter of “gender” (Butler, 2024), with non-binary people  as a particularly malleable and instrumentalized site of projection.

Despite this regressive climate, knowledges and representations regarding non-binary identities—both within and beyond the academic field—continue to proliferate. These can be understood as minoritarian epistemologies that, across multiple disciplines, offer theoretical and empirical contributions toward the articulation and legitimation of gender diversity. Political science, sociology, psychology, legal studies, philosophy, and the arts (among others) have variously engaged with these questions, often producing porous disciplinary boundaries and reaffirming the value of interdisciplinarity.

The present call for papers invites contributions from scholars, activists, and community members working on nonbinary identities and experiences, social movements, or research practices conducted with, rather than on, nonbinary individuals. We welcome theoretical, empirical, and methodological contributions from a range of disciplinary perspectives, addressing (but not limited to) the following areas:

  • Linguistic, terminological, and identity-related evolutions associated with nonbinary identities and their implication
  • Media representations (e.g., social media, music, cinema, illustration, comics, literature, television, journalism)
  • Plural communities and intersectional positionalities (e.g., queerness, transness, neuroqueerness)
  • Alliances and solidarities (e.g., feminisms, transfeminisms)
  • Intersections with age, disability, neurodivergence, fatness, and racialization
  • Stigma and its impact on mental health
  • Relational and sexual practices and politics
  • Euphoria and other individual and collective affirming experiences
  • Contemporary socio-political landscapes and policy frameworks
  • Legal and juridical dimensions
  • Resistance and systemic hacking strategies
  • Impact on how we must theorize about gender, social change, and social justice

Submission information

Please submit the paper with a short abstract (max. 300 words) that covers the importance of the research, methods, and any findings on the journal submission platform (you can find all the information here).

We accept submissions in English, Italian and Spanish, and we welcome contributions from any discipline in the social sciences and humanities.

  • Deadline for full article submission: November 30th, 2025

Final papers must be written in accordance with the journal's submission guidelines. All submitted papers will undergo double blind peer review.

All articles will be published in open access.

References

Ansara, Y. G., & Berger, I. (2016). Cisgenderism. In The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies (pp. 1–3).

Baril, A. (2015). Transness as debility: Rethinking intersections between trans and disabled embodiments. Feminist Review, 111(1), 59–74.

Borrelli, I. (2024). Gender is over. Feltrinelli.

Butler, J. (2024). Chi ha paura del gender? Laterza.

Garbagnoli, S. (2017). La teoria del gender: L’attacco alla libertà di espressione sessuale e di genere. Ombre Corte.

Kováts, E., & Põim, M. (2015). Gender as symbolic glue: The position and role of conservative and far right parties in the anti-gender mobilizations in Europe. Foundation for European Progressive Studies.

Prearo, M. (2020). L'ipotesi neocattolica. Politologia dei movimenti anti-gender. Mimesis.

Richards, C., Bouman, W. P., Seal, L., Barker, M. J., Nieder, T. O., & T’Sjoen, G. (2016). Non-binary or genderqueer genders. International Review of Psychiatry, 28(1), 95–102.

Risman, B. J., & Fleming, C. (2022). Category X: What does the visibility of people who reject the gender binary mean for the gender structure? About Gender – International Journal of Gender Studies, 11(21).

Rosati, F. (2024). L’impatto dello stigma sulla salute delle persone trans e non binarie: Una proposta interpretativa all’intersezione con prospettive crip, disabili e neurodiverse. About Gender, 13(25), 198–240.

Schillaci, A. (2021). Il contrasto della discriminazione e della violenza omolesbobitransfobica in prospettiva giuridica. In G. Gianturco & G. Brancato (Eds.), Oltre gli stereotipi sulla violenza di genere. Sapienza Università Editrice.

Further references

Arfini, E. A. (2014). Transability. Transgender Studies Quarterly, 1(1–2), 228–230.

Halberstam, J. (2019). Unbuilding gender: Trans* anarchitectures in and beyond the work of Gordon Matta-Clark. Places.

Hendricks, M. L., & Testa, R. J. (2012). A conceptual framework for clinical work with transgender and gender nonconforming clients: An adaptation of the Minority Stress Model. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 43(5), 460–467.

Marcasciano, M. (2015). AntoloGaia. Vivere sognando e non sognare di vivere: I miei anni Settanta. Edizioni Alegre.

Matsuno, E., Bricker, N. L., Collazo, E. N., Mohr, R., & Balsam, K. F. (2022). “The default is just going to be getting misgendered”: Minority stress experiences among nonbinary adults. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 11(2), 202–214.

Pignedoli, C. (2021). Riflessioni sulla transnormatività in Italia al prisma dei saperi trans sulle pratiche drag king. Quaderni del Laboratorio Interdisciplinare di ricerca su Corpi, Diritti, Conflitti, 91–106.

Rosati, F., Lorusso, M. M., Pistella, J., Anzani, A., Di Giannantonio, B., Mirabella, M., & Baiocco, R. (2024). Nonbinary people living in a binary world: Minority stress in public and gendered places. International Journal of Transgender Health.

Sottile, F. (2020). La Mostruositrans. Per un’alleanza transfemminista fra le creature mostre. Eris Edizioni.

Spade, D. (2011). Normal life: Administrative violence, critical trans politics, and the limits of law. South End Press.

Stryker, S. (2017). Transgender history: The roots of today’s revolution. (Trad. it. Storia transgender. Radici di una rivoluzione, Roma, Luiss University Press, 2023).

Vincent, B. (2018). Non-binary genders: Navigating communities, identities and healthcare. Policy Press.