Nonbinary and gender neutral language in cultural texts

Text corpus of nonbinary and gender neutral language

Eiichiro Oda – Nami shows her Loyalty to the Crew!, 2021
- “He's the king of pirates..”
Kohei Horikoshi – My Hero Academia (Translator: Caleb Cook) , 2016 ; Chapter: "Shoto Todoroki: Origin"
- “That Midoriya kid kept prodding at him and got beaten because of it.”
- “Wasn't his plan to just keep provoking him, though?”
- “Gotta admire his vigor.”
Scott Cawthon – Five Nights at Freddy's 2, 2014
- “In the game Five Nights at Freddy's 2, the character Mangle, also referred to as "The Mangle," canonically uses she/him pronouns. In Phone Guy's call on the third night, he says "I think the employees refer to him as just 'The Mangle. '" ”
- “Additionally, part of his description in Five Nights at Freddy's: Ultimate Custom Night, part of her description says "...once Mangle reaches the vent opening he will never leave. Use the vent-snare to prevent her from making it that far."”
- “When the creator of the game, Scott Cawthon, was asked about Mangle's gender, he says that her gender is "Yes."”
Eric Kripke – Gen V, 2023 ; Jordan Li is the main character of the series “Gen V”; they are a bigender person. Two actors appear in this role: London Thor and Derek Luh.
Canadian actor Elliot Page shares he is transgender (CBC News) , 2020
- “Page said he has been inspired by many in the trans community, and thanked them for their courage, generosity and working to make the world a more inclusive and compassionate place.
  While Page said his joy is real, it is also "fragile." Despite feeling profoundly happy and acknowledging his privilege, he is also scared of the invasiveness, the hate, the jokes and the violence.”
Jorge Luis Borges – The Garden of Forking Paths (Original title: El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan" (1941)) , 1948
- “He was Governor of Yunnan and gave up temporal power to write a novel with more characters than there are in the Hung Lou Meng, and to create a maze in which all men would lose themselves. ”
Ursula K. Le Guin – The Left Hand of Darkness, 1969
- “He was so feminine in looks and manner that I once asked him how many children he had. He looked glum. He had never borne any. He had, however, sired four. It was one of the little jolts I was always getting. Cultural shock was nothing much compared to the biological shock I suffered as a human male among human beings who were, five-sixths of the time, hermaphroditic neuters.”
- “Seven years we were kemmerings, and had two sons. Being of his flesh born they had his name Foreth rem ir Osboth, and were reared in that Clanhearth. Three years ago he had gone to Orgny Fastness and he wore now the gold chain of a Celibate of the Foretellers. We had not seen each other those three years, yet seeing his face in the twilight under the arch of stone I felt the old habit of our love as if it had been broken yesterday, and knew the faithfulness in him that had sent him to share my ruin. And feeling that unavailing bond close on me anew, I was angry; for Ashe’s love had always forced me to act against my heart.”
Linsey Miller – Mask of Shadows, 2017 ; a genderfluid character who goes by he, she or they depending on what they’re wearing
Cavetown – This Is Home, 2015 ; Includes themes of aromanticism, being transgender.
- “Often I am upset that I cannot fall in love but I guess
  This avoids the stress of falling out of it”
- “Ooh... I'll cut my hair
  Ooh... to make you stare
  Ooh... I'll hide my chest
  And I'll figure out a way to get us out of here”
- “Get a load of this monster
  He doesn't know how to communicate
  His mind is in a different place
  Will everybody please give him a little bit of space
  Get a load of this train-wreck
  Hishair's a mess and he doesn't know who he is yet
  But little do we know, the stars
  Welcome him with open arms”
The Spook School – Richard and Judy, 2015
- “You tell your son
  That when he's older
  You’ll take him out chasing girls ”
- “He doesn’t understand
  But he'll get there in the end
  And the boys, the boys the boys, the boys
  Will handle themselves”

Normative “she/her” (she/her)

Maddy Thorson – Is Madeline Canonically Trans? (Medium) , 2018
- “I mentioned earlier that I didn’t know that Madeline was trans during the development of Celeste, and that I had a hunch when we made Farewell. That was a gradual thing. As time went on post-launch, my personal understanding of Madeline shifted from “maybe she’s trans” to “okay she’s definitely trans”.”
Plasterbrain – Pizza game (Art by Brendan Blabber (Jelloapocolypse)) , 2019 ; Warped lamp goes by she/her (shes trans, confirmed by the game creator/artist (Jelloapocolypse) on Tumblr and cannonically comes out to the protagonist mid-g
- “"Well... if her reason is lvoe, maybe I can sort of under. Stand"”
- “"I guess question IS... do I return her feelings?" ”
- “"And she IS making a sparkly face at me..."”
Scott Cawthon – Five Nights at Freddy's 2, 2014
- “In the game Five Nights at Freddy's 2, the character Mangle, also referred to as "The Mangle," canonically uses she/him pronouns. In Phone Guy's call on the third night, he says "I think the employees refer to him as just 'The Mangle. '" ”
- “Additionally, part of his description in Five Nights at Freddy's: Ultimate Custom Night, part of her description says "...once Mangle reaches the vent opening he will never leave. Use the vent-snare to prevent her from making it that far."”
- “When the creator of the game, Scott Cawthon, was asked about Mangle's gender, he says that her gender is "Yes."”
Warframe – Ticker, ; Ticker was perhaps one of the first realistic transgender characters in the games industry, not only because she has an amazing story which enriches her personality, but she wasn't just her gender. Ticker is a strong hearted queen of redemption [...]
Cyberpunk 2077, 2021 ; Claire was a former Militech engineer before eventually quitting and opening her own autoshop. [...] At one point in her past, Claire was close friends with a man named Dean Russell, who supported Claire through her transition from male to female [...]
Eric Kripke – Gen V, 2023 ; Jordan Li is the main character of the series “Gen V”; they are a bigender person. Two actors appear in this role: London Thor and Derek Luh.
Matt Braly – Amphibia, ; Darcy is referred to with a variety of pronouns, including it/its and they/them.
Alicja Ptak, Marcin Gocłowski – Thousands protest in Poland demanding release of LGBT activist (Reuters) , 2020
- “The police started releasing detained protesters on Saturday, but not Margot.
  She is a member of the activist group “Stop Bzdurom”. The group have said they hung flags on statues last week as part of a fight for LGBT rights, an issue thrust into the heart of public debate in Poland during last month’s presidential election.”
Robin Pogrebin – Lauren Halsey Brings Her Vision of South Central Los Angeles to New York (Naima Green for the New York Times) , 2022
- “She gathers whatever items catch her eye along the way and takes photos on her phone. Those finds, together with the ephemera she has saved since her teenage years of making collages (magazine clippings, church figurines, shiny foil palm trees, miniature cars, aquarium plants), fill every corner of Halsey’s Los Angeles studio and gradually make their way into her artwork.”
- “Through her installations Halsey is honoring the community that nurtured and inspired her — not only her mother, a teacher, or her father, an accountant, but the church, the convenience stores, her bus route, her relatives and community centers. She is also documenting a particular segment of society, elevating an urban vernacular that often gets devalued or ignored.”
- ““She’s not trying to unpack notions of racism, she’s just trying to celebrate Blackness,” said the artist Charles Gaines, who taught Halsey when she] was an undergraduate at the California Institute of the Arts. “She’s trying to bring into the realm of art things that are thought to be low culture, things that are victimized by a certain stereotype.””
Jacob Stolworthy – Eddie Izzard praised after fans notice use of she/her pronouns in latest TV appearance (The Independent) , 2020
- “Earlier this week, the stand-up comedy star, 58, appeared on Sky Arts series Portrait Artist of the Year in which the show’s host Stephen Mangan and contestants referred to Izzard as “she” and “her”. Izzard’s fans, who were catching up with the show at the weekend, have posted supportive messages on social media.”
- “Speaking about her decision, Izzard told contestant Chris Holder: "This is the first programme I've asked if I can be 'she' and 'her' – this is a little transition period." She said “it feels very positive”, adding: “I just want to be based in girl mode from now on.””
Joe Strike – Furry Nation, 2017 ; A genderfluid person is referred to by she/her
- “The word "visionary" is tossed around a lot these days, usually referring to sci-fi and fantasy movie directors (whether they deserve it or not), but LeeLee's fiancé, Thadd, has definitely earned the title. For starters, Thadd has a "post-gender" identity, a concept a lot of people are still having trouble wrapping their heads around.
  "I don't care what pronouns people use. Most people think of me as female, while others may assume I'm male and apologize when my voice pitch changes mid-conversation. I never really think of myself as female or male. In a gender-fluid sense I may feel female today and male the next. I'm always just me."”
- “Thadd's "department" is the still relatively young field of 3D printing. When I asked her what piqued her interest in the technology, she tells me, "In a way I've always been interested in the technology. Sculpting with clay seemed so painfully slow, and many, many times I wished for the literal invention of 3D printing."”
Ursula K. Le Guin – Winter's King (in: The Wind's Twelve Quarters) , 1975
- ““Argaven looked at them, face after face, the bowed heads and the unbowed.
  “I am Argaven,” she said. “I was king. Who reigns now in Karhide?””
Ann Leckie – Ancillary Justice, 2013
- “She was probably male, to judge from the angular mazelike patterns quilting her shirt. I wasn’t entirely certain. It wouldn’t have mattered, if I had been in Radch space. Radchaai don’t care much about gender, and the language they speak—my own first language—doesn’t mark gender in any way. This language we were speaking now did, and I could make trouble for myself if I used the wrong forms. It didn’t help that cues meant to distinguish gender changed from place to place, sometimes radically, and rarely made much sense to me.”
Linsey Miller – Mask of Shadows, 2017 ; a genderfluid character who goes by he, she or they depending on what they’re wearing
Thomas Anderson and Mike Dahlin – Operating Systems Principles & Practice (Second Edition) Volume II: Concurrency, 2015
- “When an electrician walks into a room she wired last month, she does not have to spend time trying to remember which color is which.”
- “Once a philosopher picks up a chopstick, she does not release it until she is done eating, even if that means no one will ever eat.”
The Neighbourhood – Sweater Weather, ; There are two main love interests in this song; when the lead singer references "she," the lyrics are referring to a partner using she/her pronouns. However, when the lead singer references "you," the love interest has switched and the gender is unknown.
- “Coming down
  One love, two mouths
  One love, one house
  No shirt, no blouse
  Just us, you find out
  Nothing that I wouldn't wanna tell you about, no, no, no
  'Cause it's too cold
  For you here
  And now, so let me hold
  Both your hands in the holes of my sweater”
YUNGBLUD – mars (from the album “weird!”) , 2020 ; This song is a pretty simple but sad story of a trans woman.
- “She dreamed she'd go to California
  There everyone would adore her
  And all her mates will call her
  'Til four in the morning””
- “But she can't be herself when she's somebody else”
- “In the morning, she would take her mother's wedding ring”

Singular “they” (they/them)

This list of sources includes both the version with “themselves” and “themself”, as well as those that don't happen to use reflexive.

ALOK – Bio on personal website, 2017
- “ALOK (they/them) is a gender non-conforming writer and performance artist. Their distinctive style and poetic challenge to the gender binary have been internationally renowned. As a mixed-media artist Alok uses poetry, prose, comedy, performance, fashion design, and portraiture to explore themes of gender, race, trauma, belonging, and the human condition. They are the author of Femme in Public (2017) and Beyond the Gender Binary (2020). In 2019 they were honored as one of NBC’s Pride 50 and Out Magazine’s OUT 100. They have presented their work in more than 40 countries.”
arcadekitten – It's not me, it's my basement, 2021 ; Embry it's confirmed as a non binary character by the creator of the game "It's not me, it's my basement".
Blizzard Entertainment – Meet the Mercenaries – Varden Dawngrasp (a new character in the game Hearthstone) , 2021
- “A curious intellectual seeking redemption in the eyes of their people…
  
  Dawngrasp spent most of their life in Silvermoon, a curious young elf and student of all things magical. They showed a preternatural gift for the arcane, quickly mastering various schools of magical thought. They were trained by Prince Kael’thas Sunstrider himself, who was part of the High Council of the Kirin Tor. It looked like Dawngrasp would rise through the ranks of the mages of Quel’thalas and attain the title of Magister.
  
  Alas, Arthas and the Scourge had other plans. In the aftermath of the destruction of the Sunwell, Kael’thas went to Outland, but Dawngrasp would not go. After the prince’s subsequent betrayal, many of the magisters, Grand Magister Rommath included, suspected that Dawngrasp might be in league with the traitorous prince. Alienated, Dawngrasp turned to their studies for comfort.
  
  After the Night of Falling Stars, a troll appeared in Silvermoon. His name was Kazakus, and he sought aid in gathering the glowing shards that had rained across the Barrens. Suspicious of the troll’s intentions, Dawngrasp went to Kalimdor of their own accord, seeking knowledge about the power contained inside the shards…”
Hisashi Nogami – Splatoon (Agent 3), 2015 ; Agent 3, a character starring in all 3 games, is canonically non-binary / has no gender, as the player is able to decide that for themselves.
Mobius Digital – Outer Wilds, 2019 ; The hearthians do not have a concept of gender and exclusively refer to each other with they/them pronouns
Project Sekai – Mizuki Akiyama (Colorful Palette, Sega Corporation) , 2021 ; Mizuki is a confirmed genderqueer character who uses they/them pronouns and has several image songs about their gender identity, most notably, IDSMILE by toa.
softbuns7 – Honkai: Star Rail - Pom-Pom, 2023
- “Mission Description of "Sudden Sadness":
  Pom-Pom seems to be troubled and depressed. Find something to distract them and brighten up their day.”
- “"If a glass gets broken... Pom-Pom will certainly have a wonderful reaction to it, won't they?" - Inner monologue of the Trailblazer during investigation in the adventure mission "Sudden Sadness"”
- “Mission Description of "Battle for Health":
  Pom-Pom is starting physical training, but they require your help to practice...
  
  Steps:
  1. Find Pom-Pom and play ball with them
  ”
- “"This is Pom-Pom's most prized plant. They'll notice even if one leaf is ever-so-slightly darker." - Inner monologue of the Trailblazer during investigation in the adventure mission "Sudden Sadness"”
Toby Fox – Deltarune, 2018 ; Kris Dreemurr is a confirmed non-binary character from the indie RPG "Deltarune"
- “Huh...? Kris...? Did you say something back there? (... I can't hear them anymore...)”
Tillie Walden – On a Sunbeam, 2016
- “Oh and Ell doesn't talk. No one told me that when I got here and I felt like an idiot. And they're non-binary.”
William Shakespeare – The Comedy of Terrors (Act 4, Scene 3) , 1595
- “There's not a man I meet but doth salute me
  As if I were their well-acquainted friend”
Wizards of the Coast – Magic: The Gathering, 2020
- “Niko is a new Planeswalker from the Plane of Theros. Early in Niko's life, an oracle foresaw a great future for Niko: they were destined to be a great athlete, an undefeated javelineer who would never miss a shot. Niko trained and competed for many years, but in all that time, they heard stories and songs of heroes who would fight to protect people and began to question the destiny prescribed to them. Eventually, Niko decided to challenge fate itself and, to the shock of many, purposefully lost a competition. The realization that they could control their own fate set Niko on their new path: a young Planeswalker seeking to become a true hero like they had always dreamed.”
Battlefield 2042, 2021
- “Sundance definitely likes to live on the edge. They're a skilled and fearless adversary that's had two very different lives – one as a model soldier in the Armée de Terre, and an earlier and much darker existence as a trusted associate in a major Parisian crime syndicate. The latter, sadly, came back to haunt them and ended their military career pre-maturely.”
- “This Assault Specialist is doing their best to keep a low profile among the Non-Patriated, while still using their unique talents to aid the cause whenever they can.”
Bloodhound – Apex Legends, 2021
- “Bloodhound is known across the Outlands as one of the greatest game hunters the Frontier has ever seen. The child of two engineers stationed at the New Dawn industrial plant on Talos, Bloodhound was taken in by their uncle Artur after a meltdown destroyed the facility and killed both their parents. Artur taught them the Old Ways, a belief system that focuses on the glory of nature and rejects modern technology. Yet Bloodhound was constantly drawn to technological marvels, and ultimately used both new and old methods to take down a Goliath that preyed on the people of their village, forever changing their life’s path.”
Bugsnax, 2020
- “Dislikes journalists for painting them as creepy.”
- “Shelda stroked Lizbert's distrust of Floofty, and they fled.”
Fallout 76: Steel Dawn, 2020
- “Because it suits them better. When I first met Burke... they were different. Secluded. Like they didn't want anyone to see them. Burke flinched when others talked about them. People expected things based on how they looked. They had these... titles. The Silent Man. Albino Dog. One day I asked if something else would feel better. It took some trial and error, but we eventually settled on the neutral 'they'. They're a much happier person now, for the insignificant price of a word.”
Shalaxi Helbane (Warhammer minature, Games Workshop) , 2019
- “Shalaxi Helbane is a monster hunter without compare. Just as fast, lethal and magically adept as a regular Keeper of Secrets, this champion of the Dark Prince has a suite of skills that make them a deadly duellist in both Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Age of Sigmar. Bloodthirsters, Hive Tyrants and Stardrakes alike will struggle to face their wrath, making them a superb addition to your Slaanesh or Chaos Daemons army.”
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege: Operation Vector Glare, 2022
- “Growing up in a tight-knit family unit, Ngoma was able to pursue their interests without much resistance. They learned everything they could about psychology and physics, all the while receiving classical music training with their two younger siblings. Ngoma also learned the basics of mechanics in their father’s garage, effectively rounding out the skillset that they would later apply in their career.”
Treble from Papa's Cluckeria uses they/them (taken from the wiki) ,
- “"They are the first character to appear in a Flipline Studios game to identify as a gender other than male or female."
  "Hailing from the quaint town of Oilseed Springs, Treble is a diligent High School student and an enthusiastic member of the school’s Auto Club. Treble’s life took an exciting turn on their 16th birthday when their father handed over the keys to his old pickup truck. During the following winter, Treble spent countless hours in the garage, revamping the old truck with new parts and their own personal flair. Now, nothing brings them more joy than cruising down the dusty roads of Oilseed Springs on a sweltering summer day."”
Dana Terrace – The Owl House (Season 2, Episode 7) , 2021 ; Raine Whispers is the first non-binary character of Disney and they're voiced by the also non-binary voice artist, Avi Roque
- “"So the Head Witch of the Bard Coven likes pretending to be a rebel. Too bad they're not very good at it!"”
Dana Terrace – The Owl House (Season 2, Episode 8) , 2021 ; Raine Whispers is the first non-binary character of Disney and they're voiced by the also non-binary voice artist, Avi Roque
- “"Just tell them! Let them help!"”
- “"Stop pushing them away!"”
Eric Kripke – Gen V, 2023 ; Jordan Li is the main character of the series “Gen V”; they are a bigender person. Two actors appear in this role: London Thor and Derek Luh.
Hamish Steele – Dead End - Paramormal Parl, 2022
- “"[...]Anway, hello, I'm Jules.
  My pronouns are they, them, and the late.
  [laughs] A little, uh, ghost jokes for you there."”
Matt Braly – Amphibia, ; Darcy is referred to with a variety of pronouns, including it/its and they/them.
Rebecca Sugar – Steven Universe Future (Episode: Litte Graduation ) , 2019
- “"Great. They're so cool. I can't believe we've been dating for almost two months, now."
  ”
- “"Say "Hi" to them for me"”
- “"Shep is Sadie's new partner. They met while she was on tour with the Suspects."”
AJ and the Queen (Season 1, Episode 2: Pittsburgh) , 2020
- “Or, actually, I'm not sure where he or she or they is on the gender non-binary scale.”
Billions (Season 2, Episode 2) , 2017
- “Hello, I'm Taylor. My pronouns are they, theirs, and them.”
- “– She spotted that from outer space?
  – Not she. They.”
Blockbuster (S01 E05) , 2022
- “Left, left, left. I hate Quinn. I don't even know if they like movies. They come in here all the time and make everything about themselves.”
- “[...] and Quinn, who never stops talking about themself, no offense.”
City of Ghosts (Season 1, Episode 2: Venice) , 2021
- “My name is Thomas. I use "they" and "them" for my pronouns.”
DeGrassi: Next Class (Season 4, Episode 6 “#FactsOnly”) , 2017
- “My favorite vlogger did a thing about this. They identify as genderqueer. Or, I think there’s another name for it. Um... Genderfluid. They feel like they’re between a boy or a girl. Or both. Or neither.”
Doctor Who – “The Devil's Chord” (S14E02) , 2024
- “ – [Tutor] Henry, get away from him.
  – [Maestro] Them.
  – [Tutor] What?
  – [Maestro] Me.
  – [Tutor] What?
  – [Maestro] I'm them.
  – [Tutor] You're who?
  – [Maestro] “You're who?”
  ”
Glow Up (Season 3, Episode 3) , 2021
- “My look is based on Claude Cahun. They were a non-binary, queer artist that played with gender and image and reclaiming the way you're perceived.”
Glow Up (Season 3, Episode 7) , 2021
- “One hour has passed and Jack has decided to play their Val card.”
Good Omens (S02E02) , 2023
- “– What did God say?
  – Um… I'm not sure. I didn't understand much. [...]
  – They explain?
  – I think the point was, if you want answers, come back when you can make a whale.
  – And the children? Did They mention the children?”
Good Omens (S02E03) , 2023
- “– Beelzebub's not happy with you.
  – Oh really? Beelzebub? Not happy? But they're always such a little ray of sunshine!
  – They're seriously not happy.
  ”
Heartbreak High, 2022 ; Darren is non-binary and is referred to with they/them pronouns.
Lucifer (S6:E7: My Best Fiend's Wedding) , 2021
- “My tailor would be personally offended if I didn't allow them to help you out in this time of need. They're a total genius. Saved me after the short-suiting debacle.”
Metal Shop Masters (Season 1, Episode 1; Netflix) , 2021
- “Rae just has to take hers apart. Seven has to throw theirs away.”
- “Things were already made. They just stuck them together.”
New Amsterdam (season 6, episode 6) , 2019
- “Miss Verdene, well, I am Dr. Bloom, and this here is Nurse Brunstetter. And they're gonna take care of your lacerations.”
No Way uses they/them (Object Show: IT'S TIME FOR THE) ,
- “Taken from the wiki
  "They competed on Earth at first, but they were temporarily switched to Scribble."
  "Despite their levelheaded and rational nature, they are shown to be easily surprised such as when they asked Tile where he went, and when Tile responded with, "you just don't get it dude" they exclaimed in happiness in Best Source For Weather Information."”
One Day at a Time (Season 2, Episode 3: "To Zir, With Love") , 2018
- “– Anyway, I started talking to Syd and I found out we have so much in common. And I know you're not crazy about me dating, but I was just wondering if I could get ice cream with them.
  – And by "them" you mean just Syd?
  – Yes!”
Our Flag Means Death (Season 1, Episode 7) , 2022
- “But Jim's the kind of person where if they stabbed me, I'd be like, “Yeah, I probably deserved it.””
Sex Education (Season 3, Episode 2; Netflix) , 2021
- “– I know her. Well, I mean, she bumped into me the other day.
  – My pronouns are they/them but no worries. I'm Cal.”
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, 2019
- “Lord Hordak, I’d like to introduce you to Double Trouble. They’re our newest asset in taking down the Rebellion. (Season 4, Episode 3)”
- “We captured Double Trouble! They’re refusing to talk to us, but... still! (Season 4, Episode 8)”
Star Trek: Discovery (Season 3 Episode 8, “The Sanctuary”) , 2020
- “– But even so, their work has been nothing short of stellar. They're... really something.
  – They're also awake.”
Star Trek: Prodigy (Season 2 Episode 8: Is There in Beauty no Truth?) , 2024
- “We have to tell Zero before they start the Running of the Nazamon. Zero doesn't know what they're getting into!”
- “Z's in danger. We might lose them forever.”
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Season 1 Episode 7, "The Serene Squall") , 2022
Avinash Chak – Beyond 'he' and 'she': The rise of non-binary pronouns (BBC News) , 2015
- “kat baus, a non-binary student who graduated from Harvard this year - and who also writes their name without capital letters - regrets that the university's computer system was not introduced earlier. "It would have been a lot easier and less awkward," baus says.
  baus sent emails or visited professors during office hours to explain their gender identity and pronouns. In smaller classes they (baus) brought it up when introducing themself.”
Jamie Feldman – How Being The First Non-Binary Person Vying For Miss Colorado USA Changed Their Life (HuffPost) , 2019
- “Their friends and family were wary but supportive ― so much so that Stecina quickly collected enough money to cover the application fee through fundraising on social media ― and after publicly announcing their intention to compete, they found themself in a particularly vulnerable place.”
Alison Flood – Marieke Lucas Rijneveld wins International Booker for The Discomfort of Evening (The Guardian) , 2020
- “In their acceptance speech, Rijneveld said they wrote the words “be relentless” on the wall above their desk while writing their novel.
  “Today, when the world has been turned upside down and is showing its dark side, I often remember those words. So, write, read, win, lose, love each other, but be relentless in this,” they said.”
Ben Kesslen – Nonbinary 'Billions' star Asia Kate Dillon won't be 'made precious' (NBC News) , 2019
- “As Dillon explains it, when they started as a recurring character in Season 2, Taylor was ”sort of introduced as this moral and ethical center in a very unethical world.” A young, queer and nonbinary person entering the male-dominated hedge fund world, their character acted as an antidote to the hedge fund’s money-hungry male employees. But, as Dillon said, power and money “corrupt” and their character wasn’t immune.”
Mordechai Laub – Kacen Callender shares the importance of queer novels (Young Entertainment) , 2020
- “Kacen Callender is a bestselling and award-winning author. They have written novels for middle school readers, young adult readers, and adults. Kacen Callender born and raised in St. Thomas of the US Virgin Islands. Some of Kacen Callender’s novels include This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story and Felix Ever After. ”
Nick Romano – Madagascar animated series welcomes a nonbinary character in Pride episode sneak peek (Entertainment Weekly) , 2021
- “Ezra Menas couldn't identify with a character on screen until hir mid-20s. The actor from Broadway's Jagged Little Pill and the upcoming West Side Story movie — who identifies as nonbinary and uses zie/hir/they pronouns — saw actor Elliot Fletcher, a trans man, portray Aaron on an episode of The Fosters. It was "real, real late in my life," Menas tells EW. Before that moment, zie would project hir experience onto characters "always hoping for some kind of narrative to come through."”
- “Thinking back to how little queer representation Menas saw on screen as a kid, they believe a character like Odee would've made hir younger self feel less alone.”
Alexis Petridis – Sam Smith: Love Goes review – heartbreak album plays it safe in hard times (The Guardian) , 2020
- “The lyrics stick fast to romantic misery, from infidelity to perfidious swine interested only in Smith’s bank balance. These are perennial topics for Smith, though as they told Lowe, their first two albums were inspired by unrequited love; Love Goes is apparently their “first proper heartbreak album”. ”
R. B. Lemberg (Uncanny Magazine) , 2019
- “R.B. Lemberg is a queer, bigender immigrant from Ukraine, Russia, and Israel to the US. Their stories and poems have appeared in Lightspeed‘s Queers Destroy Science Fiction, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Uncanny Magazine, Sisters of the Revolution: A Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology, and more.”
Star Trek: Discovery Introduces First Transgender and Non-Binary Characters (StarTrek.com) , 2020
- “Del Barrio was in their final year of studies at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art when they auditioned for the role of Adira. Del Barrio has been acting in theater and short films since the age of 7, and they’re incredibly excited to make their television acting debut in season three of Discovery.”
Top 7 LGBTQ moments of the Tokyo Olympics (Outsports) , 2021
- “Quinn (who is trans nonbinary) had a Games to remember when they helped Canada win its first gold medal in women’s soccer. Quinn always remembered they represented more than themself, as they said on the “Trans Sporter Room” podcast last year […]”
Alechia Dow – The Sound of Stars, 2020
- “AvR0la has been [M0Rr1S’s] personal assistant and companion since youth. They are nonbinary, efficient and far more sensible than he. Their pale blonde hair is pulled back into a severe bun, and their green eyes shimmer in the reflection they cast in the window.”
Alechia Dow – The Sound of Stars, 2020
- “They open the door and give me a small grin. Their name’s Angel, an enby from the ninth floor. They’re maybe three years older than me, blond, skinny as a rail, with blue eyes that dart back and forth like they’re expecting something, but it might just be their normal expression. I follow them down the dark hall to the former laundry room[...]”
Charlie Jane Andrews – The Bookstore at the End of America (short story from the collection A People's Future of the United States) , 2019
- “Sander stared at the space where Souls on the Land ought to be, and their pale, round face was full of lines. They had a single tattoo of a butterfly clad in gleaming armor, and the wires rained from the shaved back of their skull. They were some kind of engineer for the Anoth Complex.”
Daniel José Older – Midnight Horizon (Star Wars: The High Republic) , 2022 ; The High Republic is a multimedia series, the photo seen is from "Galactic Bake-Off Spetacular" which features Kantam Sy and their friend Torban Buck telling a story. Both characters are in both books and comics.
- ““That’s what I thought,” Kantam said. They raced ahead to smack back the next few shots, taking care to adjust their balance for the weight of each one. With the gunship bearing down on them, Kantam sent the final laser blast zinging directly into it, taking out the cannon and gunner in a sparkling explosion.
  Kantam sidestepped and held out their lightsaber as the gunship hurtled past, shredding a vicious gash into its metal armor.”
Bernardine Evaristo – Girl, Woman, Other, 2019
- “they were asked to review the play for a fee for the lifestyle magazine, Rogue Nation, on account of their Twitter following of over a million followers
  which apparently turned them into an ‘influencer'”
- “fancy me bumping into Mx Morgan Malinga! how cool is that? all the way down from oooop North, wey aye, man, I bet you love being in London, are you going to move down?”
Jorge Luis Borges – The Garden of Forking Paths (Original title: El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan" (1941)) , 1948
- “He was Governor of Yunnan and gave up temporal power to write a novel with more characters than there are in the Hung Lou Meng, and to create a maze in which all men would lose themselves. ”
Yoon Ha Lee – Phoenix Extravagant, 2020
- “What did you expect? they asked themself. They'd known about Vei's loyalties from the beginning, even if she had Hwagugin blood. Being intimate with Jebi didn't change her nature. But they couldn't help wishing it were otherwise.”
Linsey Miller – Mask of Shadows, 2017 ; a genderfluid character who goes by he, she or they depending on what they’re wearing
Daniel José Older – Star Wars: Last Shot, 2018
- “Now Taka was yelling something, singing, perhaps, in tune with the melodious love song that the world itself sang. They were insistent, there was somewhere apparently they wanted to be, and wanted Han to be, too, which was lovely.”
Kelly Robson – Intervention (in Infinity’s End, edited by Jonathan Strahan) , 2018
- “Émeraude unclipped and offered the doctor their hand. They were a kid with only two modes: all-out or flatline. A few months back, they’d injured themselves cranking on a crimp, completely bowstringing the flexor tendon.”
William Shakespeare – The Comedy of Errors (Act IV, Scene III) , 1594 ; Early use of (generic) singular they/them.
- “There's not a man I meet but doth salute me
  As if I were their well-acquainted friend”
Sheela Chari – The Unexplainable Disappearance Of Mars Patel (JP McGowan, a non-binary character which is canon in the books but not in the podcast ) , 2019
- “JP had a fight with their mom this morning and wonders if they'll ever be accepted in this world'.”
Tui. T. Sutherland – Wings of Fire; Flames of hope (Chapter 7, page 88) , 2022
- “"Is it a boy human, or a girl human?" Sky would ask.
  "Neither? Both? We'd have to ask them," Wren said. "They use they and them pronoun. Like that traveling librarian we met, Sky, remember? Sage?"
  "Oh, Right," Sky said”
William of Palerne – William and the Werewolf, 1375 ; The earliest known example of generic singular "they" usage
- “Hastely hiȝed eche wiȝt ... til þei neyȝþed so neiȝh ... þere william & his worþi lef were liand i-fere.
  (Moder English: Each man hurried ... til they drew near ... where William and his darling were lying together.)”
Rowan Williams – The Face in Her Stars (a League of Legends short story) , 2021
- “I rushed Shorin with a cry. They raised their shield defensively, but I lifted my own and then drove it down, using their front-heavy weight to topple them. In a flash, my sword was over my shield, pointed at their throat. They lifted their sword to the side to show the stroke would have felled them.”
Virginia Woolf – Orlando: A Biography, 1928 ; The titular character of Woolf's novel mysteriously changes from a man into a woman at the age of 30 and lives for over 300 years without aging. Singular they is used in the passage describing Orlando's “transformation”.
- “We may take advantage of this pause in the narrative to make certain statements. Orlando had become a woman--there is no denying it. But in every other respect, Orlando remained precisely as he had been. The change of sex, though it altered their future, did nothing whatever to alter their identity. Their faces remained, as their portraits prove, practically the same. His memory--but in future we must, for convention's sake, say 'her' for 'his,' and 'she' for 'he'--her memory then, went back through all the events of her past life without encountering any obstacle.”
The Holy Bible, King James Version. Deutronomy 17:5, 1611 ; Early use of (generic) singular they/them.
- “Then shalt thou bring forth that man, or that woman (which haue committed that wicked thing) vnto thy gates, euen that man, or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones till they die.”
atlas, jhfly – they/them (from the EP “flowers”) , 2018
- “You know it's they/them, as in me and most of mine
  Some identical identity, I keep 'em close beside”
Sam Domingo – It’s as if my ears want to close, 2020 ; The poem was part of a performative lecture “When words erase people. Experiences of non-binary people in Poland and the Philippines”
- “A certain softness is in their voice,
  Almost whispering constant aggression.
  They tell me the slurs, now notes,
  have formed a harmonious hum of
  The melancholy of the linguistic conundrum.
  They sing to me an elegy for their dead name.
  It's as if my ears want to close.
  
  They smoke for a breather,
  Mimicking the gasps from sudden attacks
  Of "tita," [aunt] "ate," [sister] and "ma'am"
  Invoked from homophobic lungs
  That gave claustrophobic traumas.
  I gulp the air now a pound heavier.
  It's as if their ears want to close.”
Simon – Cloud 9 (alt pronouns) - Beach Bunny, Tegan and Sara,
- “But when they love me, I feel like I'm floating
  When they call me pretty, I feel like somebody
  Even when we fade eventually, I'm nothing
  You will always be my favorite form of loving”
Bandetto uses they/them (LAPFOX TRAX/HALLEY LABS) , ; Bandetto is canonically agender and dating The Quick Brown Fox (making them an agender4agender couple)
- “From Bandetto's biography: "a pool toy that was animated through unknown means - like, actually unknown. they aren't one of Darius' weird experiments and were invited to HALLEY LABS by Rotteen. they can't speak or use sign language due to their paws, but their gesturing is always very easy to read. they have a strong fondness for TQBF."”

Personal “it” (it/its)

"My pronouns are it/its", said Grembi. (Analog Horror: Grembi's Night Show) , ; Grembi is a non-human entity who uses it/its. It's creator has said that even if it was human, it'd still use it/it's. Also, Grembi is a canon pansexual, genderqueer and drag monarch.
- “"My pronouns are it/its." (from it's rentry)
  "It's name is Mx. G, or Grembi. Nice person, y'know. Always helping someone out when they need. It's just... Weird sometimes. My friend once told me he saw it chasing my friend, ___" ”
Matt Braly – Amphibia, ; Darcy is referred to with a variety of pronouns, including it/its and they/them.
Beth Greenfield – Here’s why some LGBTQ youth are now embracing the nonbinary pronoun ‘it/its’ (Yahoo!Life) , 2021
- “Discussions around this aspect of “it/its” are ongoing on social media, with a recent TikTok user (Maeve.digital, below) responding to commenters who were too offended by the pronoun to ever use it. "It's ironic," it says, "because basically what you're saying is 'I want to respect you, therefore I'm not going to use the pronouns that you just told me to use.'”
- “It certainly plays a part in Rouke’s choosing the pronoun — as does being autistic, it explains — because choosing the pronoun is the “reclaiming of dehumanization and ‘otherness’ through the positive use of pronouns typically used in a derogatory manner by others.”
- “It recently tweeted about the topic.”
Patric Fallon – Arca Is the Artist of the Decade (Vice) , 2019
- “The Venezuela-born artist, who came out as non-binary in 2018 and uses the pronouns "she" and "it," has come to embody practically every positive thing that is synonymous with the 2010s.”
Bruce Coville – Aliens Ate My Homework, 1993 ; Initally the character is referred to as a "he" by the narrator; later, after it asks to - as an "it".
- ““Okay,” I said. “Just tell me what pronoun to use when I’m talking about him. Her. Uh, it. I mean . . . see what I mean?”
  “It will do just fine,” said Tar Gibbons.
  “What will do just fine?”
  “It will,” he repeated.
  “What will?”
  “It. Refer to me as an it.”
  “That seems pretty rude,” I said nervously.
  “Not as rude as calling me a he or a she,” it said.”
- “Before I could answer, or ask the Tar why it kept calling me “Young Rod Allbright,” Plink went scooting back in the other direction, carrying something that looked like the interstellar version of a monkey wrench.”
- ““Pet flap?” asked Tar Gibbons.
  “It's a special little door that lets the dog go in and out on his own.”
  “Very thoughtful,” said Tar Gibbons approvingly.
  I decided not to tell it that Mom had installed the flap more for our convenience than for Bonehead's.”
Martha Wells – The Murderbot Diaries, 2017
- “On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied 'droid -- a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as "Murderbot." Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is. ”
Ian McDonald – River of Gods, 2004 ; spelled "yt" in the book but otherwise used and pronounced the same way as personal "it"
- “A sudden lurch throws Tal from the bench seat. The phatphat bounces to a stop. Tal rearranges yts thermal scatter coat, tuts at the dust on yts silk pants, then notices the soldiers. Six of them phase out of rural night camouflage.”

Neopronoun “ae” / “æ” (ae/aer)

Allison Forsyth – How the Pandemic Upended the Life of Sarasota’s College Students (Sarasota Magazine) , 2021
- “Online classes were foreign to Krasny, save for a random driver’s ed course ae took in high school. During lockdown, ae was taking welding and sculpting classes that required special materials, which the school provided. But it was hard to replicate assignments alone in aer room. (Oceanna uses the pronouns “ae” and “aer”).”
A City of Surveillance and Wonders: Announcing S. Qiouyi Lu’s Debut Novella In the Watchful City (Tor.com) , 2020 ; The article is about a book by S. Qiouyi Lu, who uses ae/they pronouns, titled "In the Watchful City." Anima, the protagonist of the book, uses æ/ær/ærs pronouns.
- “Tordotcom Publishing is thrilled to announce that Jonathan Strahan has acquired World English Rights to S. Qiouyi Lu’s In the Watchful City, a lyrical, intimate novella set in a remote, fantastical city that uses a complex living network to watch over its inhabitants and visitors. Through the lens of four interconnected stories, one of the city’s cloistered human overseers will see aer knowledge of aer world expand beyond the city’s boundaries to places—and possibilities—ae has never before imagined to exist.”
- “S. Qiouyi Lu writes, translates, and edits between two coasts of the Pacific. Aer work has appeared in several award-winning venues. Ae edits the magazine Arsenika and runs microverses, a hub for tiny narratives. You can find out more about S. at aer website s.qiouyi.lu or on Twitter ”
- “sqiouyilu.”
Bernardine Evaristo – Girl, Woman, Other, 2019
- “they discussed the best gender-neutral alternatives such as ae, e, ey, per, they, and tested each word to see if the words tripped off the tongue or “tripped over it, ditto with the alternatives to his and hers: hirs, aers, eirs, pers, theirs and xyrs”
David Lindsay – A Voyage to Arcturus, 1920
- “No children were produced by the act; the lover aerself was the eternal child. Further, ae sought like a man, but received like a woman.”
- “Ae possessed broad shoulders and big bones, and was without female breasts, and so far ae resembled a man. But the bones were so flat and angular that aer flesh presented something of the character of a crystal, having plane surfaces in place of curves.”
- “Maskull found it impossible to compute aer age. The frame appeared active, vigorous, and healthy, the skin was clear and glowing; the eyes were powerful and alert—ae might well be in early youth. ”
S. Qiouyi Lu – In the Watchful City (GoodReads book summary) , 2021 ; This is the GoodReads summary of "In The Watchful City" by S. Qiouyi Lu. The main character is Anima and æ uses æ/ær/ærs pronouns. According to the reviews, other characters have neopronouns like se/ser/sers and e/em/eirs.
- “Anima is one of the cloistered extrasensory humans tasked with watching over Ora's citizens. Although ær world is restricted to what æ can see and experience through the Gleaming, Anima takes pride and comfort in keeping Ora safe from all harm.”
- “As Anima’s world expands beyond the borders of Ora to places—and possibilities—æ never before imagined to exist, æ finds ærself asking a question that throws into doubt ær entire purpose: What good is a city if it can’t protect its people?”

Neopronoun “co/cos” (co/cos)

Twin Oaks Community - Membership Agreement, 1989
- “Co will conduct coself according to the duly adopted rules, policies, and procedures of the Community as they exist at the time of this Agreement and as they may, by Community decision, change from time to time. In particular, co has read, understands, and agrees to abide by the Bylaws of Twin Oaks Community, Incorporated (hereinafter "the Bylaws"), which by reference are made a part of this document.”
Paula C. Rust – Sexual Identity and Bisexual Identities (in: Queer Studies: A Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Anthology, edited by Brett Beemyn and ‎Michele Eliason) , 1996
- “At the very least, an individual might have to use different terms to describe coself in a heterosexual context than co uses in a sexual minority context and different terms in a Euro - American cultural context than in other racial and ethnic contexts ”

Spivak pronouns (e/em/eir)

Michele Kirichanskaya – Interview With Maia Kobabe (Geeks OUT) , 2020
- “Maia Kobabe is a nonbinary, queer author and illustrator from the Bay Area, California. Eir first full length book, GENDER QUEER: A MEMOIR, was published in May 2019. Maia’s short comics have been published by The Nib and in many anthologies including THE SECRET LOVES OF GEEKS, FASTER THAN LIGHT Y’ALL, GOTHIC TALES OF HAUNTED LOVE, SHOUT OUT, ADVANCED DEATH SAVES and BE GAY, DO COMICS. Before setting out to work freelance full-time, e worked for over ten years in libraries.”
Smash Pages – Smash Pages Q&A: Maia Kobabe (Alex Dueben) , 2019
- “Maia Kobabe has been making comics for The Nib, and anthologies like Mine!, Gothic Tales of Haunted Love, The Secrets Loves of Geeks and elsewhere for years, but eir first book is the just released Gender Queer: A Memoir from Lion Forge.”
- “Gender Queer is an exploration of identity, an explanation of what the term means, but more than that, it’s a thoughtful look at coming to understand oneself over time and what it means to be human. Maia and I spoke recently about the book, working with eir sibling on it and reluctantly crafting a memoir.”
Author: Maia Kobabe (The Nib) , 2019
- “Maia Kobabe is a nonbinary, queer author and illustrator with an MFA in Comics from California College of the Arts. Eir first full length book, GENDER QUEER: A MEMOIR is forthcoming from Lion Forge in May 2019. Eir work focuses on themes of identity, sexuality, anti-fascism, fairy tales, and homesickness.”
Bogi Takács: About the Author (Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 105) , 2015
- “Bogi Takács is a Hungarian Jewish agender trans person (e/em/eir/emself or they pronouns) and a resident alien in the US. E is a winner of the Lambda award for editing Transcendent 2: The Year's Best Transgender Speculative Fiction, and a finalist for the Hugo and Locus awards. Eir debut poetry collection Algorithmic Shapeshifting is out now from Aqueduct, and eir debut short story collection The Trans Space Octopus Congregation was published in Fall 2019 by Lethe Press. ”
Bernardine Evaristo – Girl, Woman, Other, 2019
- “they discussed the best gender-neutral alternatives such as ae, e, ey, per, they, and tested each word to see if the words tripped off the tongue or “tripped over it, ditto with the alternatives to his and hers: hirs, aers, eirs, pers, theirs and xyrs”
Ann Leckie – Provenance, 2017
- ““No,” said the person sitting in the suspension pod. “I don’t even know who that is.” E noticed the cup Captain Uisine was proffering. “Thank you,” e said, and took it, cupped it in eir hands as Captain Uisine stopped the blanket from sliding off eir shoulders.”
Nicole Melleby and A.J. Sass – Camp QUILTBAG, 2023
- “'Camp QUILTBAG: a safe space to be yourself!.' Kai didn't see why e couldn't just be emself back at home. Instead, eir parents were sending em someplace where e wouldn't know anyone, all because a few kids at school last year had a problem with Kai and eir pronouns.”
Michael D. Spivak – The Joy of TeX. A Gourmet Guide to Typesetting with the AMS-TeX Macro Package (The quotes are from the 2nd edition (2004 reprint), the original was published in 1982) , 2004 ; Note the capitalization of the pronoun. Spivak himself, doesn't provide a reflexive form.
- “Just as ‘I’ is the first person singular pronoun, regardless of gender, so ‘E’ will be used in this book as the third person singular pronoun for both genders. Thus, ‘E’ is the singular of ‘they’. Accordingly, ‘Eir’ (pronounced to rhyme with ‘their’) will be the possessive, and ‘Em’ (rhyming with ‘them’) will stand for either ‘him’ or ‘her’. Here is an example that illustrates all three forms: E loves Em only for Eir body. (p. xv)”
- “If a book designer wanted to use underlining extensively, E would have to design a special ‘\ul’ font in which each letter has an underline as part of it; of course, the letters g, j, p, q and y would be one of Eir design problems. (p. 18)”
- “If the author uses such notation, it should be up to Em to indicate Eir intentions clearly, but there’s no harm checking first. (p. 63)”

Neopronoun “e/em/es” (e/em/es)

Donald MacKay – Psychology, Prescriptive Grammar, and the Pronoun Problem (American Psychologist. 35 (5): 444–449) , 1980
- “Whether E is the best possible neologism is another matter. Determining a "best possible" neologism presents an unsolved problem of considerable theoretical magnitude. Current theories suffice to distinguish between actual versus possible versus impossible words without regard to concepts, but such a project requires new theories for discriminating within the indefinitely large set of possible words to find the one most suited for expressing a particular concept like "he or she."”
James Rogers – That Impersonal Pronoun ("The Writer") , 1890
- “Every writer has 'es' verbal likes and dislikes, yet, for the sake of convenience, I trust that even 'e' who dislikes verbal innovations will give my little word a little trial and note for me the result.”
Emery Lee – Meet Cute Diary, 2021 ; Devin, a character from the book, uses both e/em and xe/xem pronouns

Elverson pronouns (ey/em)

Judie Black – Ey has a word for it (Chicago Tribune) , 1975
- “For example, a speaker might use these new transgender pronouns when ey addresses an audience of both men and women. Eir sentences would sound smoother since ey wouldn’t clutter them with the old sexist pronouns. And if ey should trip up in the new usage, ey would have only emself to blame.”
Bernardine Evaristo – Girl, Woman, Other, 2019
- “they discussed the best gender-neutral alternatives such as ae, e, ey, per, they, and tested each word to see if the words tripped off the tongue or “tripped over it, ditto with the alternatives to his and hers: hirs, aers, eirs, pers, theirs and xyrs”
Sayuri Ueda – The Cage of Zeus (Translated from Japanese by Takami Nieda) , 2011 ; Takami Nieda refers to Spivak pronouns in the Translator's Note, although the Elverson pronouns are actually used.
- “The figure that stood before him was in eir early thirties with spindly arms and legs and slight features. Eir silken hair, cut evenly at the chin, shone as it moved. Although difficult to guess eir ethnic origin and not exactly beautiful, ey had strangely magnetic eyes. “My name is Tei,” ey said.”
- “One of the Rounds, panic-stricken at the thought of being hit, began to run, pushing and shoving the others around em.”
- “But Fortia twisted free from his grasp and threw emself against the terminal.”

Neopronoun “fae/faer” (fae/faer)

freygl gertsovski (AngelHousePress) , 2021
- “freygl gertsovski is a queer, nonbinary multiply crip/mad, white settler Jewitch whose people are Ashkenasi from present-day Moldova. fae is a writer, artist, crafter, homesteader, and community organizer living, dreaming, working, co-creating, praying, and healing in Tkaronto (toronto). freygl has published 5 chapbooks of poetry in a series titled Growing Roots, Healing Wounds and has performed spoken word in Tkaronto (toronto), Metula (victoria), and elsewhere since 2012.. Faer poetry appears in NationalPoetryMonth.ca 2020 Ode to the Small.”

Humanist pronouns (hu/hum)

Robert Hume – Pocock's Contextual Historicism (in: The Political Imagination in History, edited by D. N. DeLuna) , 2006
- “If hu is dealing with many writers, most especially if they span decades or centuries , then serious problems of consistency and connectivity arise.”

Neopronoun “ne/nem” (ne/nem)

A.C. Wise – Non-binary authors to read – May 2020 (The Book Smugglers) , 2020
- “Matthias Klein is an author and collector of dead things and my recommended starting place for nir work is “The Art of Quilting”, which first appeared in the anthology Survivor edited by Mary Anne Mohanraj and JJ Pionke and reprinted in Transcendent 4: The Year’s Best Transgender Speculative Fiction edited by Bogi Takács.”
Susan Driver, Natalie Coulter – Youth Mediations and Affective Relations, 2018
- “Kay's experience of romantic attraction is different from mainstream narratives about romance. Being able to sum up nir specific, personal experience of romantic attraction with a single word—akoiromantic— makes it easier for Kay to communicate nir feelings and needs to the people around nem.”

Neopronoun “ne/nir” (ne/nir)

Allie Fireel – When love is (really) complicated: being asexual, aromantic, demisexual, 2018
- “Fawkes also found nir people on Facebook, discovering nonbinary gender and asexuality at the same time. Ne didn’t know how to identify nirself, but had known for a long time that hetero and gender normativity was not the answer.”
Merc Fenn Wolfmoor – Our Aim Is Not to Die (short story from the collection A People's Future of the United States) , 2019
- “They log in Maya’s information and bring up nir location log. Maya isn’t home. Nir GPS marker shows ne is a couple of blocks away, near an abandoned warehouse scheduled for demolition in the spring.”
- ““Can I give you a hug?” ne asks. Sua nods again, and Maya pulls them close, fierce, and squeezes until their breath comes short. “One day, it’ll be okay again,” Maya whispers. “I love you, Sua. Stay safe.”
  Then Maya disentangles nirself and runs.”

Person pronouns (per/per)

Maggie Baska – UK gender-neutral passports case headed for European Court of Human Rights after 30-years fight (PinkNews) , 2022
- “Christie Elan-Cane previously confirmed to PinkNews that per planned to take the case to the ECtHR in Strasbourg, France after per case was dismissed by the UK Supreme Court. Per described being “angry”, “furious”, “disappointed” but “not surprised” at the verdict. ”
Bernardine Evaristo – Girl, Woman, Other, 2019
- “they discussed the best gender-neutral alternatives such as ae, e, ey, per, they, and tested each word to see if the words tripped off the tongue or “tripped over it, ditto with the alternatives to his and hers: hirs, aers, eirs, pers, theirs and xyrs”
Marge Piercy – Woman on the Edge of Time, 1976
- “I’ve read of this and seen a drama too about a person who sold per body to feed per family!”
- “Barbarossa dyes per beard, in truth. Isn’t it pretty? It was brown before.”
- “Then the aunts person selected—advisers for the next years—return for per.”
- “My child named perself this month, too.”

Neopronoun “s/he” (s/he/hir)

A. D. Amorosi – Genesis P-Orridge, of Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV, Dies at 70 (Variety) , 2020 ; uses "h/er" instead of "hir"
- “S/he formed Throbbing Gristle in the mid-1970s with Chris Carter, Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson and Cosey Fanni Tutti, releasing seminal industrial album “The Second Annual Report” in 1977. Throbbing Gristle released nine albums and broke up in 1981, reuniting nearly 20 years later.”
Peter David – Star Trek: New Frontier: The Two-Front War, 1997
- “S/he gestured in a friendly, but not too aggressive manner, and waved at the empty seat opposite hir. Selar hesitated a moment and then, with what appeared to be a profound mental sigh, approached Burgoyne.”
Sharyn Graham Davies – Challenging Gender Norms: Five Genders Among Bugis in Indonesia, 2007
- “S/he wears trousers, shirts, and t-shirts . S/he has short hair. S/he is attracted to feminine women, and s/he works in the capital city of South Sulawesi, Makassar, as a disk jockey. While Eri certainly does not feel hirself to be a woman, s/he does not deny the fact that s/he is female-bodied.”
Michael A. Martin – Star Trek: Titan: Fallen Gods, 2012
- “To refine hir focus and concentration, Eid'dyl retracted hir sensory stalks, effectively blinding hirself. Seeking the mind that the Old Records said dwelled here in order to see to the Undercity's repair and maintenance needs, Eid'dyl called out into the darkness.”
Amanda Lock Swarr – South African Transgendered Subjectivities: Exploring the Boundaries of Sex, Gender, and Race, 2003
- “Within this framework, social factors are deemed more important than physiological ones. Medically, Nhlanhla will have to be treated with hormones and surgeries at least into hir adolescence.”

Neopronoun “thon” (thon/thons)

Charlie Kaufman – Antkind, 2020
- “I am not certain what I am hoping to learn, but I have discovered through my research into the underrated and trailblazing work of filmmaker Allen Albert Funt that a person who believes thonself to be unobserved will act in a manner different from a person who believes thonself to be observed.”
- “"I can't let you see my therapist, B."
  "Why?"
  "We talk about you. It would be a conflict of interest for thon.”
  “Your therapist is a thon?”
  “No. But I prefer not to even be specific about thon's gender.”
  “Why?"
  “I'm afraid it might allow you to track thon down and see thon behind my back.””
Henry G. Williams – Outlines of Psychology, 1895
- “It should be the constant aim of the teacher to cultivate thons own ethical imagination, and to hold up constantly to the pupils' view the ideal manhood and womanhood. (p. 52)”
- “No teacher can fully comprehend the disadvantages to which thons school is subject without a good library, until teacher and school have had free and frequent access to one. (p. 78-79)”
- “Is the attention of the pupil chiefly on thonself, another person or object, or on the subject at hand? (p. 111)”

Neopronoun “ve/ver” (ve/ver)

Greg Egan – Distress, 1995 ; The pronouns are used with reference to “asex” characters (it's a sci-fi novel in which some people rid themselves of sex characteristics and sexuality as a, sort of, political/philosophical manifesto) and generically (instead of, e.g. singular “they”).
- “Every journalist paraphrased vis subjects (p. 19)”
- “Ve was dressed in black jeans and a loose black T-shirt. (p. 95)”
- “Science and technology seemed to have given ver everything ve could ask for (p. 194)”
- “Kuwale hesitated and cast vis eyes down. (p. 195)”
- “I could hear ver breathing slowly, trying to calm verself (p. 227)”
Greg Egan – Diaspora, 1998
- “Yatima surveyed the Doppler-shifted stars around the polis, following the frozen, concentric waves of
  color across the sky from expansion to convergence. Ve wondered what account they should give of
  themselves when they finally caught up with their quarry.”
- “Yatima couldn't speak for vis fellow traveler, but the answer for ver lay at the opposite end of the scale,
  in the realm of the very simple, and the very small”
- “The pewter-skinned citizen clasped vis hand to vis chest and said, “I'm Inoshiro.” The golden-furred citizen clasped vis hand to vis chest and said, “I'm Gabriel.” The black-silhouetted citizen gave vis hand a thin white outline to keep it from vanishing as ve moved it in front of vis trunk, and said, “I'm Blanca.””
- “Entrusting a version of verself to another citizen would have been unthinkable, back in Konishi. Yatima placed vis palm against Inoshiro's, and they exchanged snapshots.”
Keri Hulme – The Bone People, 1983
- “And stop calling it 'it': yer got yer one great invention, remember Holmes? The neuter personal pronoun; ve/ver/vis, I am not his, vis/ve/ver, nor am I for her, ver/vis/ve, a pronoun for me.”
Hannu Rajaniemi – A Portrait of Salai (in Infinity’s End, edited by Jonathan Strahan) , 2018
- “That was Sfumato’s precedent, that was what ve did. That was what defined ver: running away from unfinished things. Ve had been doing it since before ve was born.”
Alastair Reynolds – On The Steel Breeze, 2013
- “Travertine’s a pretty divisive figure. Ve’s a friend of mine – or was, I suppose. When ve was last in trouble, I was one of those who pushed for a lighter punishment. The issue split the assembly – Sou-Chun was among those who felt we needed to make a clearer example of ver, if only to keep the rest of the local caravan happy.”
- “You spoke to Travertine yesterday, when ve came to your house. How would you describe vis state of mind?”
- “So Travertine had set verself on this path, constantly testing Assembly authority, chafing against restrictions, pushing vis luck. After the last censure, ve had done well to avoid imprisonment. But Travertine always rebuilt and pushed further. And Chiku had to agree with ver here – the Assembly always knew what Travertine was up to and chose not to intervene. Because on some unspoken level they wanted ver to succeed.”

Neopronoun “vi/vir” (vi/vir)

Kaia Sønderby – Tone of Voice, 2018
- “I glanced at private P'yo Jae-shin as vi joined me, setting vir bag at vir feet. Vi was tiny, roughly around the same height as Captain Chui, though with a deceptively slender build. (p. 101)”

Neopronoun “xe/xem” (xe/xem)

Amethyst Liddell – Pokémon Reborn (fan game) , 2013 ; Adrienn Flores is a nonbinary character who uses xe/xem/xyr pronouns.
- “Cain: "So then for pronouns.."
  Adrienn: "Xe/xem/xyr will be fine in place of, for instance, he/him/his."”
EnbyMo – Poki's Lokis (a mod for Stardew Valley) , 2023
- “Adds a shopkeeper to the Cindersap Forest, west of the Hat Mouse, named Poki. (Poki uses xe/xem/xyr/xyrs/xemself pronouns. Xe is friends with the Hat Mouse. You cannot talk to xem, xe is just a map tile at the moment, but I may be making xem into an NPC in 1.6.) Xe sells various seeds and recipes. Compatible with SVE, Stardew Reimagined 3, and Cape Stardew. Xe is not an alien, xe just uses neopronouns. Also xe dyes xyr hair differently each season.”
Inti Creates – Azure Striker Gunvolt, 2015
- “Xe leads a team of hunters.
  We tried engaging xem, but xe fled to the rooftops of sinner's row.”
Alex Bollinger – Could this new more inclusive flag replace the rainbow flag? (LGBTQNation.com) , 2018 ; Daniel Quasar was the designer of the progress pride flag.
- “Xe said that xe was inspired to design the new flag when the Philadelphia Office of LGBT Affairs displayed a version of the rainbow flag with brown and black stripes to represent people of color.
  
  “I felt there needed to be more thought put into the design and emphasis of the flag to give it more meaning,” xe wrote on Facebook.”
- “Xe is trying to raise $14,000 on KickStarter, mostly to produce nylon flags that are three feet wide and five feet long. Xe has received almost $3000 so far.
  
  Quasar identifies as a “queer non-binary demiguy” and prefers xe/xem/xyr pronouns.”
J. Blackburn, K. Gottschewski, Elsa George, and Niki L. – A discussion about Theory of Mind: From an Autistic Perspective (from Autism Europe's Congress) , 2000 ; (2019 reprint in “Autonomy, the Critical Journal of Interdisciplinary Autism Studies” Vol. 1 No. 6)
- “And if you see that someone has some abilities which are totally inexplicable and like magic to you, it can easily look like xe would be able to do and know everything.”
- “Of course the nature of knowledge or logic depends on xyr experience, reasoning ability, environment, object of current perseveration and fixation, and so on.”
Jim Sinclair – If you could choose… (archived from the original) , 1992
- “I wouldn't want to miss out on knowing such a person just because xe happened to be the “wrong” sex.”
Ashley Shuttleworth – A cruel and fated light, 2022
- “Very long and lean and disturbingly wraithlike with xis too-sharp features, golden-starlight shimmering skin, ivy-green hair, and eyes that were all electric iris and no pupil at all. Arlo didn't need the distinct tone of rotting in xis aura or the black cloak xe wore to tell her xe was one of the Wild Hunt. But xe was so young--goodness, xe had to be younger than her, even, at least in appearance.”
Emery Lee – Meet Cute Diary, 2021 ; Devin, a character from the book, uses both e/em and xe/xem pronouns
Artur Nowrot – Dragon Child (#EnbyLife. Journal for Non-Binary & Gender-Diverse Creatives.) , 2021
- “If you don’t behave, the dragon will get you, people used to say to Yare. Whenever xe was too loud, got carried away during playtime, did not eat something xe was supposed to, when xe didn’t pay xer elders the respect they felt they were owed. Later, when xe struggled with the learning and tasks xe was assigned, when xe wasn’t fast or strong or clever enough, the other children would taunt, Dragon Child! Dragon Child!”
- “The dragon came quickly. There was a rustle, a swoop, a blow of air, and there drae stood, towering above Yare, iridescent. The dragon looked at Yare, narrowed draer eyes, sizing xer up. Imagine if drae rejected the offering! Please, take me, dragon. Don’t make me more of a failure then I already am.”
- “When drae found out the truth, drae took the child with draem. And kept draer eye on the villagers. Until gradually the custom shifted and people started giving their children to the dragon. Drae took everyone in.””

Neopronoun “ze/hir” (ze/hir)

Mari Cohen – Beyond the Gender Binary: Alternatives to “boy” and “girl” (The Communicator) , 2011
- “Growing up, Williams always just thought of hirself as a tomboy. Ze definitely was “not your typical stereotype of a little girl,” but still identified as a girl.
  
  Then, the summer after Williams’s sophomore year, hir friend mentioned the term genderqueer in a conversation. Though Williams had heard the term in passing before, ze wasn’t really sure exactly what it meant. After the conversation, Williams Googled “genderqueer”, not knowing that the search results would completely change hir identity.”
Levi C. R. Hord – Bucking the Linguistic Binary: Gender Neutral Language in English, Swedish, French, and German (Proceedings of Western Interdisciplinary Student Symposium on Language Research, Iss. 1, Vol. 3) , 2016
- “Speaking from hir unique gender position, Feinberg highlighted what ze called a “crisis of language” (Owen 1996) which often results in clumsy dual constructions such as s/he, and which would be solved by abandoning binary language altogether in favour of specific language to suit complex gender identities. (p. 6)”
Meredith Broussard – When Binary Code Won’t Accommodate Nonbinary People (Slate) , 2019 ; Zemí Yukiyú Atabey's pronouns are ze/zem.
- “That aesthetic, however, dates to the very earliest era of computing. It’s not inclusive. It is specifically exclusionary to someone like Zemí Yukiyú Atabey, an NYU graduate student who identifies as genderqueer and nonbinary. Atabey’s pronouns are ze (“Where is ze?”)/zem (“I don’t have the tickets. I gave them to zem.”). “As a nonbinary person, there is no option most of the time,” ze says of entering personal information in databases. “There’s only male or female, which doesn’t fit my reality or identity.” Microsoft Word, the program I used to compose this story, marked all of Atabey’s pronouns with the red squiggly underline. Meaning: The people at Microsoft who wrote Word do not recognize Atabey’s pronouns as acceptable English words, even though the genderqueer community has been suggesting the use of ze and hir as pronouns for at least 20 years.”
Nick Romano – Madagascar animated series welcomes a nonbinary character in Pride episode sneak peek (Entertainment Weekly) , 2021
- “Ezra Menas couldn't identify with a character on screen until hir mid-20s. The actor from Broadway's Jagged Little Pill and the upcoming West Side Story movie — who identifies as nonbinary and uses zie/hir/they pronouns — saw actor Elliot Fletcher, a trans man, portray Aaron on an episode of The Fosters. It was "real, real late in my life," Menas tells EW. Before that moment, zie would project hir experience onto characters "always hoping for some kind of narrative to come through."”
- “Thinking back to how little queer representation Menas saw on screen as a kid, they believe a character like Odee would've made hir younger self feel less alone.”
Denise Petski – ‘Another Life’: Eight Cast In Netflix Sci-Fi Drama Series (Deadline) , 2018
- “Zayn is the ship’s medic, and since in the future medicine is a whole lot more holistic than it is now, ze is also the ship’s shrink. Ze is extremely logical, intuitive, and curious. As chief medic, ze must confront hir worst fears of losing those people ze’s grown closest to.”
Charlie Jane Andrews – Because Change Was the Ocean and We Lived by Her Mercy (in: Transcendent 2: The Year's Best Transgender Speculative Fiction) , 2017 ; uses the spelling "sie" instead of "ze"
- “Joconda was sort of the leader here. Sie sometimes had a beard and sometimes a smooth round face covered with perfect bright makeup. Hir eyes were as gray as the sea and just as unpredictable.”
K. A. Cook – The Differently Animated and Queer Society (A short story from a collection called “Crooked Words” by K. A. Cook) , 2013
- “Pat couldn’t help a slight frown as ze got out of hir car. It wasn’t likely that someone was going to try and mug a zombie, but even so, the neighbourhood didn’t seem all that prosperous. There weren’t even too many cars around, just one down the other end of the street and a rusty bike chained to a light post.
  Maybe ze shouldn’t have waited until ze’d be the last to arrive. What if everyone had come, decided that nobody was coming, and gone home already? What if ze was the only one to come at all?”
- “This will be fine, Pat told hirself, in what felt like a ridiculous attempt to bolster hir courage. If ze had summoned up the courage for hir last job interview—and Pat thought ze would have gotten it despite being undead if ze felt remotely inclined to try and pass, something that annoyed hir job seeker support officer no end—then ze could summon up the courage to do this. This should be easier than a job interview!”
Seth Dickinson – Sekhmet Hunts the Dying Gnosis: A Computation (Beneath Ceaseless Skies #143) , 2014 ; Only the nominative form is used.
- “Ze is a slender sinuous person, black as carbon fiber, seated perfectly erect. Eyes a little luminous in the twilight of Set’s half-drowned tomb, as if they are filled with jellyfish.”
- ““I have come to speak to you,” ze says. “My name is Coeus.””
Chayanika Shah, ‎Raj Merchant, ‎Shals Mahajan – No Outlaws in the Gender Galaxy, 2015
- “One respondent with an intersex variation said that ze thought of hirself as a woman, but was unsure. While ze would have liked to identify as 'woman' due to societal scripts around what male or female bodies should look like, ze did not allow hirself to call hirself a woman.”
Susan Stryker, Stephen Whittle – Preface to a reprint of Leslie Feinberg's pamphlet in “The Transgender Studies Reader”, 2006
- “Leslie Feinberg, whose particular style of being transgender helped non-gender-specific pronouns like “s/he” and “hir” achieve a limited popularity over the past decade, must be considered a founding figure of contemporary transgender studies. Hir influential pamphlet, reproduced below, took an older (and apolitical) term — transgender — and infused it with a radical new meaning. (p. 205)”
- “Though hir particular theory of history has not attracted widespread support in transgender communities, hir work has gained a devoted and grateful following for the powerful way it calls upon transgender people to recover their historical legacy, and to harness that knowledge to the current struggle for a more just society. (p. 205)”

Neopronoun “ze/zir” (ze/zir)

One Day at a Time (Season 2, Episode 3: "To Zir, With Love") , 2018
- “I'm Margaux. Pronouns "ze" and "zir".”
Teenage Bounty Hunters (Season 1, Episode 7) , 2020
- “–"In an autocracy, when the despot is down, it's every person for herself."
  –"Zirself."
  –"Zirself."”
Ella Braidwood – The Chinese transgender choir who’re singing for acceptance (PinkNews) , 2019
- “Yuran, now 31, came out as trans in 2015 and started buying testosterone online. The Trans Chorus singer had struggled with zir gender identity growing up.”
Charlie Jane Andrews – Because Change Was the Ocean and We Lived by Her Mercy, 2017 ; uses the spelling "zi" instead of "ze"
- “Juya had these big bright eyes that laughed when the rest of zir face was stone serious, and strong tentative hands to hold me in place as zi tied me to the car seat with fronds of algae. I had never felt as safe and dangerous as when I crossed the wasteland with Juya.”
Erica Cameron – Pax Novis, 2019
- “Breaths hitched in zir chest, blocked by the lump in zir throat, and ze felt zir eyes widen. Ze didn't have training in keeping zir thoughts hidden behind an emotionless mask. What ze knew had been learned from cycles as a station rat and all the times zir life had depended on how well ze told a lie. ”

Neopronoun “zhe/zher” (zhe/zher)

Ritch Calvin – Feminist Science Fiction and Feminist Epistemology: Four Modes, 2016
- “When zher husband died in 1909, zhe opened the school, but was forced to close it shortly thereafter. Zhe relocated to Calcutta and reopened the school there.”
Chuck Wendig – Star Wars: Aftermath: Life Debt, 2016
- “Zhe stands aside as more of zher crew rushes in. From the entranceway come the sounds of yelling, crying, another flash detonator going off. Eleodie hums a song in tune with the universe, hands behind zher back, eyes shut tight. Waiting.”

Interchangeable forms (he or she)

Eric Kripke – Gen V, 2023 ; Jordan Li is the main character of the series “Gen V”; they are a bigender person. Two actors appear in this role: London Thor and Derek Luh.
Lena Scherman, Linda Hörnqvist – Låt mig leva [Let me live] (Sveriges Television) , 2020 ; a Swedish Television documentary featuring Polish non-binary activist Lucien Gaszyńska
- “[Lucien] I switch between female pronouns and male pronouns when I'm speaking. I define myself as non-binary. Yeah, I'm non-binary.”
Non-binary person – who is it? Margot, Łukasz Jurewicz and other LGBT persons (Polish News) , 2020
- “Łukasz is studying – he will be a paramedic in a year. She has had internships and volunteers behind her. – I am an ordinary person and my everyday life looks like everyone else – she emphasizes. He speaks openly and honestly about himself, especially today in the context of the recent events and Margot’s arrest – also a non-binary person.”
Rick Riordan – The Ship of the Dead, 2017
- “I suppose that was meant to be funny. Most of the time, Alex identified as female, but today he was definitely male. Sometimes I slipped up and used the wrong pronouns for him/her, so Alex liked to return the favor by teasing me mercilessly. Because friendship.”
Rick Riordan – The Hammer of Thor, 2016 ; Alex is as an example of when genderfluid people change pronouns mid-conversation or explain what pronouns they're using before speaking
- “Look, some people prefer they (...) They’re nonbinary or mid-spectrum or whatever. If they want you to use they, then that’s what you should do. But for me, personally, I don’t want to use the same pronouns all the time, because that’s not me. I change a lot. That’s sort of the point. When I’m she, I’m she. When I’m he, I’m he. I’m not they. Get it?”
- “Mallory crossed her arms. “He doesn’t even have a weapon.”
  “She,” Alex corrected.
  “What?” Mallory asked.
  “Call me she—unless and until I tell you otherwise.”
  “But—”
  “She it is!” T.J. interceded. “I mean, she she is.” He rubbed his neck as if still worrying about a rifle bow tie. “Let’s get to battle!”
  Alex rose to her feet.”
- “That was Alex Fierro, except in pink and green. A second ago, he had been very obviously a boy to me. Now she was very obviously a girl.”
- ““Alex, son of Loki!” Helgi began.
  “Daughter,” Alex corrected him. “Unless I tell you otherwise, it’s daughter.””
- “"She needed a male relative as a chaperone.”
  I blinked. “So you…?”
  Alex gave me an exaggerated at-your-service bow. “I’m her male relative.”
  I had a moment of reality-flipping vertigo as I realized that, yes, indeed, Alex Fierro was presently a he. I’m not sure how I knew, other than the fact that he had told me so. His wardrobe wasn’t gender specific. He wore his usual rose high-tops with skinny green jeans and a pink long-sleeved T-shirt. His hair, if anything, seemed a little longer, still green with black roots, now combed to one side in the shape of a wave.
  “My pronouns are he and him,” Alex confirmed. “And you can stop staring.””
- “I turned to Alex. “Hey, are you female today?”
  The question slipped out before I had a chance to think about whether it was weird, whether it was rude, or whether it would get me decapitated.
  Alex smiled with what I hoped was amusement and not homicidal glee. “Why do you ask?”
  “The Skofnung Sword. It can’t be drawn in the presence of women. I kind of like it better when it can’t be drawn.”
  “Ah. Hold on.” Alex’s face scrunched up in intense concentration. “There! Now I’m female.”
  My expression must have been priceless.
  Alex burst out laughing. “I’m kidding. Yes, I’m female today. She and her.”
  “But you didn’t just—”
  “Change gender by force of will? No, Magnus. It doesn’t work that way.” ”
Chuck Wendig – Star Wars: Aftermath: Life Debt, 2016
- “I envy you today for the blessing you are about to receive as you are poised ineluctably to meet his highness, her glory, his wonder, her luminous magnificence—the picaroon! The plunderer! The pirate ruler of Wild Space! The glorious knave, Eleodie Maracavanya!”

Interchangeable forms (he or they)

Jasmine Aguilera – 'I Am Trans.' Elliot Page, Star of Juno and Umbrella Academy, Announces Transgender Identity (Time) , 2020
- “Oscar-nominated actor Elliot Page announced on Tuesday that they are transgender and their pronouns are he/they. The 33-year-old known for roles in Juno (2007), Inception (2010) and the ongoing Netflix series The Umbrella Academy shared a letter on Twitter Tuesday afternoon to make the announcement, one that was both celebratory and direct.”
Star Trek: Discovery Introduces First Transgender and Non-Binary Characters (StarTrek.com) , 2020
- “Ian Alexander is a 19-year-old actor who uses they/them and he/him pronouns. He is best known for their roles as Buck Vu on the Netflix series “The OA” and Lev in Naughty Dog’s video game “The Last of Us Part II.” They are the first out transgender Asian-American person to act on television. They are also an advocate for transgender equality, racial justice and mental health awareness for LGBTQ+ youth.”
Lovejoy – Perfume (from the EP 'Pebble Brain') , 2021 ; Throughout the first verse, the singer (William Gold) switches between the pronouns he/him and they/them to refer to an ex-girlfriend's new partner.
- “It's 3:45 (AM)
  And I just bite my tongue
  Update me on your life
  And now you've found the one
  But I don't like his eyes
  And I distrust their name
  And I hate their haircut
  They look like a prick (a prick)”

Interchangeable forms (she or they)

Kim Novak – Grey’s Anatomy’s Sara Ramirez confirms they identify as non-binary (Metro) , 2020
- “Grey’s Anatomy star Sara Ramirez has told fans they identify as non-binary on Instagram, and will use the pronouns ‘she’ and ‘they’. The actor, 44, who played Callie Torres in the medical series from 2006 until 2016, shared a selfie and told their followers: ‘New profile pic. ‘In me is the capacity to be Girlish boy, Boyish girl, Boyish boy, Girlish girl. All. Neither. #nonbinary’.”
Rebecca Sugar (Nonbinary Wiki) ,
- “ In July 2018 she [Rebecca Sugar] came out as a nonbinary woman, and stated the Gems in Steven Universe are also nonbinary women. Sugar uses the pronouns she/her or they/them”
Mother Mother – Hayloft II,
- “She's not a bad kid
  But she had to do it
  She had to do it
  They're not a bad kid
  But they had to do it
  They couldn't not
  They had to face off
  She's not a bad kid
  But they had to do it
  She had to crack”

Interchangeable forms (she or it)

Patric Fallon – Arca Is the Artist of the Decade (Vice) , 2019
- “The Venezuela-born artist, who came out as non-binary in 2018 and uses the pronouns "she" and "it," has come to embody practically every positive thing that is synonymous with the 2010s.”

Interchangeable forms (he or she or they)

There's Someone Inside Your House (Netflix) , 2021
- “Born Justine Darby, this student showed me the meaning of courage when, at age 11, she came out to our school as she, he and they, and now every day in my mind, I applaud her, him, and them.”

Interchangeable forms (xe or they)

Gnarpy from Regretevator (Roblox game) uses neopronouns (taken from the wiki) ,
- “"Xe currently has the most models, with four models in total."
  "Players are allowed to give xem one coin. However, if done, nothing will happen."
  "Xyr name is pronounced "narpy" because the G in xyr name is silent."”

Other forms

Eric Kripke – Gen V, 2023 ; Jordan Li is the main character of the series “Gen V”; they are a bigender person. Two actors appear in this role: London Thor and Derek Luh.
Gayle Salamon – Assuming A Body: Transgender and Rhetorics of Materiality, 2010
- “Feinberg suggests that theory has a role to play in helping mobilize social change because it can "counsel action," yet sie also suspects that the category is general in a way that removes it from "real life."”
Lucy Nicholas – Queer Post-Gender Ethics. The Shape of Selves to Come., 2014 ; In her writing, Nicholas uses ze/per pronouns for everyone.
- “Foucault makes the normative claim that such hierarchical opposition, which ze characterises as ‘dissymmetry, exclusion of the other … a kind of threat of being dispossessed of your own energy, and so on. All that is quite disgusting!’ (Foucault 1984: 346).”
- “In illustrating ‘feminine’ ways of being and of conducting oneself, in per studies of the different moral development of boys and girls, Carol Gilligan undermined the traditional universalised and taken-for-granted masculinist definitions in developmental psychology of what is valuable in moral development. Ze suggests that women often express a ‘different voice’ – one of being socially situated and mutually caring [...]”
- “Butler famously departed from and to some extent rejected the hugely influential ideas of Beauvoir’s Second Sex (written in 1949) in per own Gender Trouble (1990).”
- “Garfinkel demonstrates this tendency for assumptions and attributions to be made based on certain ‘cues’ in per study of Agnes, who represented perself as a ‘natural’ woman [...]”
Artur Nowrot – Dragon Child (#EnbyLife. Journal for Non-Binary & Gender-Diverse Creatives.) , 2021
- “If you don’t behave, the dragon will get you, people used to say to Yare. Whenever xe was too loud, got carried away during playtime, did not eat something xe was supposed to, when xe didn’t pay xer elders the respect they felt they were owed. Later, when xe struggled with the learning and tasks xe was assigned, when xe wasn’t fast or strong or clever enough, the other children would taunt, Dragon Child! Dragon Child!”
- “The dragon came quickly. There was a rustle, a swoop, a blow of air, and there drae stood, towering above Yare, iridescent. The dragon looked at Yare, narrowed draer eyes, sizing xer up. Imagine if drae rejected the offering! Please, take me, dragon. Don’t make me more of a failure then I already am.”
- “When drae found out the truth, drae took the child with draem. And kept draer eye on the villagers. Until gradually the custom shifted and people started giving their children to the dragon. Drae took everyone in.””
Carl Sargent, Phil Gallagher et al. – Warhammer City, 1987
- “Others – who, it must be said, have better contacts with the court – maintain that her death was a natural one and must be ascribed to the wishes of the deity, for, "however great a blow it might seem to shem's mortal servants, the deity knows what shem is doing."”
- “Since Slaanesh is neither male nor female, but hermaphrodite, the members of the Jade Sceptre have invented a new personal pronoun, "shem." Thus they avoid the use of the more cumbersome "he or she" and "him or her," without recourse to the impersonal "it." "Shem" is used for both subject and object, while "shem's" replaces the possessive pronoun "his or her." ”
Atsushi – Dress (Buck tick) , 2003 ; Atsushi sakurai
Will Wood – I / Me / Myself (The Normal Album) , 2020 ; The song is about experiences with gender identity and how difficult it is to find out your own gender. Not knowing if you're labeled "girl", "boy" or neither.
- “"I wish I could be a girl, and really
  I'd prefer it if you would use I, Me, Myself"”

Nonbinary and gender neutral language in cultural texts

Eiichiro Oda – Nami shows her Loyalty to the Crew!, 2021

Kohei Horikoshi – My Hero Academia (Translator: Caleb Cook) , 2016 ; Chapter: "Shoto Todoroki: Origin"

Scott Cawthon – Five Nights at Freddy's 2, 2014

Eric Kripke – Gen V, 2023 ; Jordan Li is the main character of the series “Gen V”; they are a bigender person. Two actors appear in this role: London Thor and Derek Luh.

Canadian actor Elliot Page shares he is transgender (CBC News) , 2020

Jorge Luis Borges – The Garden of Forking Paths (Original title: El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan" (1941)) , 1948

Ursula K. Le Guin – The Left Hand of Darkness, 1969

Linsey Miller – Mask of Shadows, 2017 ; a genderfluid character who goes by he, she or they depending on what they’re wearing

Cavetown – This Is Home, 2015 ; Includes themes of aromanticism, being transgender.

The Spook School – Richard and Judy, 2015

Maddy Thorson – Is Madeline Canonically Trans? (Medium) , 2018

Plasterbrain – Pizza game (Art by Brendan Blabber (Jelloapocolypse)) , 2019 ; Warped lamp goes by she/her (shes trans, confirmed by the game creator/artist (Jelloapocolypse) on Tumblr and cannonically comes out to the protagonist mid-g

Scott Cawthon – Five Nights at Freddy's 2, 2014

Warframe – Ticker, ; Ticker was perhaps one of the first realistic transgender characters in the games industry, not only because she has an amazing story which enriches her personality, but she wasn't just her gender. Ticker is a strong hearted queen of redemption [...]

Cyberpunk 2077, 2021 ; Claire was a former Militech engineer before eventually quitting and opening her own autoshop. [...] At one point in her past, Claire was close friends with a man named Dean Russell, who supported Claire through her transition from male to female [...]

Eric Kripke – Gen V, 2023 ; Jordan Li is the main character of the series “Gen V”; they are a bigender person. Two actors appear in this role: London Thor and Derek Luh.

Matt Braly – Amphibia, ; Darcy is referred to with a variety of pronouns, including it/its and they/them.

Alicja Ptak, Marcin Gocłowski – Thousands protest in Poland demanding release of LGBT activist (Reuters) , 2020

Robin Pogrebin – Lauren Halsey Brings Her Vision of South Central Los Angeles to New York (Naima Green for the New York Times) , 2022

Jacob Stolworthy – Eddie Izzard praised after fans notice use of she/her pronouns in latest TV appearance (The Independent) , 2020

Joe Strike – Furry Nation, 2017 ; A genderfluid person is referred to by she/her

Ursula K. Le Guin – Winter's King (in: The Wind's Twelve Quarters) , 1975

Ann Leckie – Ancillary Justice, 2013

Linsey Miller – Mask of Shadows, 2017 ; a genderfluid character who goes by he, she or they depending on what they’re wearing

Thomas Anderson and Mike Dahlin – Operating Systems Principles & Practice (Second Edition) Volume II: Concurrency, 2015

The Neighbourhood – Sweater Weather, ; There are two main love interests in this song; when the lead singer references "she," the lyrics are referring to a partner using she/her pronouns. However, when the lead singer references "you," the love interest has switched and the gender is unknown.

YUNGBLUD – mars (from the album “weird!”) , 2020 ; This song is a pretty simple but sad story of a trans woman.

ALOK – Bio on personal website, 2017

arcadekitten – It's not me, it's my basement, 2021 ; Embry it's confirmed as a non binary character by the creator of the game "It's not me, it's my basement".

Blizzard Entertainment – Meet the Mercenaries – Varden Dawngrasp (a new character in the game Hearthstone) , 2021

Hisashi Nogami – Splatoon (Agent 3), 2015 ; Agent 3, a character starring in all 3 games, is canonically non-binary / has no gender, as the player is able to decide that for themselves.

Mobius Digital – Outer Wilds, 2019 ; The hearthians do not have a concept of gender and exclusively refer to each other with they/them pronouns

Project Sekai – Mizuki Akiyama (Colorful Palette, Sega Corporation) , 2021 ; Mizuki is a confirmed genderqueer character who uses they/them pronouns and has several image songs about their gender identity, most notably, IDSMILE by toa.

softbuns7 – Honkai: Star Rail - Pom-Pom, 2023

Toby Fox – Deltarune, 2018 ; Kris Dreemurr is a confirmed non-binary character from the indie RPG "Deltarune"

Tillie Walden – On a Sunbeam, 2016

William Shakespeare – The Comedy of Terrors (Act 4, Scene 3) , 1595

Wizards of the Coast – Magic: The Gathering, 2020

Battlefield 2042, 2021

Bloodhound – Apex Legends, 2021

Bugsnax, 2020

Fallout 76: Steel Dawn, 2020

Shalaxi Helbane (Warhammer minature, Games Workshop) , 2019

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege: Operation Vector Glare, 2022

Treble from Papa's Cluckeria uses they/them (taken from the wiki) ,

Dana Terrace – The Owl House (Season 2, Episode 7) , 2021 ; Raine Whispers is the first non-binary character of Disney and they're voiced by the also non-binary voice artist, Avi Roque

Dana Terrace – The Owl House (Season 2, Episode 8) , 2021 ; Raine Whispers is the first non-binary character of Disney and they're voiced by the also non-binary voice artist, Avi Roque

Eric Kripke – Gen V, 2023 ; Jordan Li is the main character of the series “Gen V”; they are a bigender person. Two actors appear in this role: London Thor and Derek Luh.

Hamish Steele – Dead End - Paramormal Parl, 2022

Matt Braly – Amphibia, ; Darcy is referred to with a variety of pronouns, including it/its and they/them.

Rebecca Sugar – Steven Universe Future (Episode: Litte Graduation ) , 2019

AJ and the Queen (Season 1, Episode 2: Pittsburgh) , 2020

Billions (Season 2, Episode 2) , 2017

Blockbuster (S01 E05) , 2022

City of Ghosts (Season 1, Episode 2: Venice) , 2021

DeGrassi: Next Class (Season 4, Episode 6 “#FactsOnly”) , 2017

Doctor Who – “The Devil's Chord” (S14E02) , 2024

Glow Up (Season 3, Episode 3) , 2021

Glow Up (Season 3, Episode 7) , 2021

Good Omens (S02E02) , 2023

Good Omens (S02E03) , 2023

Heartbreak High, 2022 ; Darren is non-binary and is referred to with they/them pronouns.

Lucifer (S6:E7: My Best Fiend's Wedding) , 2021

Metal Shop Masters (Season 1, Episode 1; Netflix) , 2021

New Amsterdam (season 6, episode 6) , 2019

No Way uses they/them (Object Show: IT'S TIME FOR THE) ,

One Day at a Time (Season 2, Episode 3: "To Zir, With Love") , 2018

Our Flag Means Death (Season 1, Episode 7) , 2022

Sex Education (Season 3, Episode 2; Netflix) , 2021

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, 2019

Star Trek: Discovery (Season 3 Episode 8, “The Sanctuary”) , 2020

Star Trek: Prodigy (Season 2 Episode 8: Is There in Beauty no Truth?) , 2024

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Season 1 Episode 7, "The Serene Squall") , 2022

Avinash Chak – Beyond 'he' and 'she': The rise of non-binary pronouns (BBC News) , 2015

Jamie Feldman – How Being The First Non-Binary Person Vying For Miss Colorado USA Changed Their Life (HuffPost) , 2019

Alison Flood – Marieke Lucas Rijneveld wins International Booker for The Discomfort of Evening (The Guardian) , 2020

Ben Kesslen – Nonbinary 'Billions' star Asia Kate Dillon won't be 'made precious' (NBC News) , 2019

Mordechai Laub – Kacen Callender shares the importance of queer novels (Young Entertainment) , 2020

Nick Romano – Madagascar animated series welcomes a nonbinary character in Pride episode sneak peek (Entertainment Weekly) , 2021