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I want people to be confused about my gender at all times. I don’t want a beard, and I don’t want my voice to change. I don’t want more gendered traits, I want less.

In a conversation with eir sister’s boyfriend, who is trans, Maia is asked why e identifies as nonbinary rather than as a trans man. Maia does wonder at various points in the memoir whether e might be trans, but the label never feels quite right. Maia’s response succinctly pinpoints the reason for identifying as nonbinary: Maia feels neither male nor female and wants to be socially recognized as neither a man nor a woman. To transition would be to swap one set of gendered traits for another. Maia’s aim, by contrast, is to escape the gender binary altogether.

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