Gender Independent Children

Gender independence is an important concept in the field of childhood studies, as inquiry into gender and childhood has historically treated the male/female gender binary as its foundational premise. In the spirit of generating scholarship that affirms children’s personhood and fundamental right to self-determination, a wider understanding of gender diversity and difference in childhood is essential. Children and adults describe the experience of gender difference using a variety of terminology including but not limited to words like transgender, genderqueer, gender nonbinary, gender fluid, gender creative, gender nonconforming, two-spirit, gender variant, and many more. One way of speaking inclusively about this group as a whole is to use the term gender independent. While not every child or adult might be comfortable with this term, and terminology ...