Tracing Non-Binary Identities In The Archives

This Library Guide seeks to frame the history of non-binary identities in the archives using queer, androgynous, and gender non-conforming texts found in Archives & Special Collections at the University of Pittsburgh Library System. Non-binary identities exist under the umbrella of transgender identities, but the history of non-binary identities lives both outside of and within transgender history. In the archives, non-binary moments can be found through discussions of gender on political and social levels. The identity as we understand it today has taken different shapes within archival publications. Examples of non-binary before non-binary thread lines can be found below.

Looking for non-binary before non-binary identities requires distinct reading practices to find moments of gender exploration beyond the binary.

Often, discussions of the future allude to gender expansion. Writers use this space of speculation to question the rigidity of the gender binary and ponder the prospect of moving between masculinity and femininity. Usually, the writers of these articles reach the conclusion that while the gender binary is unable to be transcended completely in their present, it will one day become obsolete. These sorts of future themes hint at the notion of non-binary movements, even though they do not encompass a non-binary identity.

Similar to articles about the future, many writers think through the gender binary using non-Western and Indigenous identities. These genders are often situated through a lens of the past, as writers argue that their existence proves the natural state of gender expansion beyond the binary. While these discussions inspire non-binary thinking, they are often problematic due to the culturally appropriative means white writers use to position themselves within non-Western or Indigenous genders.

Some keywords for non-binary before non-binary discussions include androgyny, androgyne, third gender, and genderfuckery. Reading these documents for genders beyond the binary helps us to better understand how non-binary identities have been shaped in queer histories.