Beyond "female and non-binary"
For more than a year now, INTEGIRLS has been using “female and non-binary” to describe our participants. However, grouping these two fundamentally differing groups together is not inclusive and counter to our mission. We cannot assume that all non-binary individuals are comfortable grouping themselves with women.
As INTEGIRLS moves to create the safe and respectful community that we set out to do, we are implementing these changes:
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As seen throughout this email, what we have previously referred to as “inteGIRLS” will be changed to “INTEGIRLS”, in order to remove the implied exclusivity of capitalizing “GIRLS” in our name.
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In our descriptions, instead of “female and non-binary”, we will use one of these two following phrases: “girls and non binary students comfortable being grouped with girls”, as well as “girls and non-binary students affected by (trans)misogyny”. For example, “A global nonprofit reinventing competitive problem solving for girls and non-binary students affected by (trans)misogyny.”
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We plan on hosting one seasonal meeting to chat about gender and queer studies news and research, and hopefully be able to bring in an expert to lead the conversation. We hope members of INTEGIRLS will join us at these meetings!
Please send any questions, comments, or concerns to info@integirls.org. We want your voices to be heard!
Special thanks to writer, activist, and gender/queer studies expert Kesiena Boom, for advising our decision.