{"id":985,"date":"2025-01-21T23:16:27","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T23:16:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ykhong.com\/writes\/?p=985"},"modified":"2025-01-25T21:53:53","modified_gmt":"2025-01-25T21:53:53","slug":"the-limits-of-the-binary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ykhong.com\/writes\/the-limits-of-the-binary\/","title":{"rendered":"The Limits of the Binary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I grew up in a country where being queer or being trans was illegal. Then, when I moved to the states, I lived in a state where being queer or being trans was <strong>also<\/strong> illegal. Was it hard? Absolutely? Did that mean I was any less queer or trans? Absolutely not. And that, in fact, politicized me in a very radical way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I came out under those conditions, I came out so <strong>LOUD<\/strong>. And for thousands of years before me, people were queer and trans, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A law that says that \u201cthere are only two sexes\u201d doesn\u2019t change the fact that that is actually not true. It certainly doesn\u2019t change who I am and how I identify. What\u2019s changing is how it is being weaponized. (This administration has also decided to forgo the factual distinction between sex and gender.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For instance, people calling me Chinese or Japanese does not mean I am no longer Korean. Instead, it indicates to me that they\u2019re the ones who are limited in their knowledge and in their scope of life. They are weaponizing their limitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Similarly, a declaration that there are only \u201ctwo sexes\u201d is a weaponization of that limited thinking, transphobia, ableism, and racism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Remember that <strong>you are the only one that can define your own gender identity<\/strong>. No one else can do that for you. And everything that tries to take that power away from us informs us how we need to protect each other and ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fortunately for us, and this will always be the case, <strong>gender is infinite<\/strong>. And what I have learned in my lifetime is when entities try to limit our expression of our identities, that expression only gets louder, bigger, and more powerful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>We protect each other infinitely<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Transphobic people can only come up with two genders, whereas trans and genderqueer people can come up with an infinite number of genders. By all counts, trans and genderqueer people win here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Just because they can\u2019t imagine us does not mean we don\u2019t exist<\/strong>. After all, I\u2019m right here. And I see you too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I grew up in a country where being queer or being trans was illegal. Then, when I moved to the states, I lived in a&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/ykhong.com\/writes\/the-limits-of-the-binary\/\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Limits of the Binary<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"federate","footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[300,68,135],"class_list":["post-985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gender-binary","tag-binary","tag-gender","tag-trans","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Limits of the Binary - YK Hong<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Limits of the Binary - YK Hong\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I grew up in a country where being queer or being trans was illegal. Then, when I moved to the states, I lived in a&#8230;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ykhong.com\/writes\/the-limits-of-the-binary\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"YK Hong\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-01-21T23:16:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-01-25T21:53:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"YK Hong\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"YK Hong\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ykhong.com\\\/writes\\\/the-limits-of-the-binary\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ykhong.com\\\/writes\\\/the-limits-of-the-binary\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"YK Hong\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ykhong.com\\\/writes\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/63b3947dbd600c6852806eb0df10ff59\"},\"headline\":\"The Limits of the Binary\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-01-21T23:16:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-01-25T21:53:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ykhong.com\\\/writes\\\/the-limits-of-the-binary\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":358,\"keywords\":[\"binary\",\"gender\",\"trans\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Gender Binary\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ykhong.com\\\/writes\\\/the-limits-of-the-binary\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ykhong.com\\\/writes\\\/the-limits-of-the-binary\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Limits of the Binary - YK Hong\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ykhong.com\\\/writes\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-01-21T23:16:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-01-25T21:53:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ykhong.com\\\/writes\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/63b3947dbd600c6852806eb0df10ff59\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ykhong.com\\\/writes\\\/the-limits-of-the-binary\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/ykhong.com\\\/writes\\\/the-limits-of-the-binary\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ykhong.com\\\/writes\\\/the-limits-of-the-binary\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ykhong.com\\\/writes\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Limits of the Binary\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ykhong.com\\\/writes\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ykhong.com\\\/writes\\\/\",\"name\":\"YK Hong\",\"description\":\"Anti-Oppression + Tech Justice\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ykhong.com\\\/writes\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ykhong.com\\\/writes\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/63b3947dbd600c6852806eb0df10ff59\",\"name\":\"YK Hong\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/a15b441b4016831a8613d616f5f3001a5f85740f89911c468ca141046ce847c6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/a15b441b4016831a8613d616f5f3001a5f85740f89911c468ca141046ce847c6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/a15b441b4016831a8613d616f5f3001a5f85740f89911c468ca141046ce847c6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"YK Hong\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ykhong.com\\\/writes\\\/author\\\/blog\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Limits of the Binary - YK Hong","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Limits of the Binary - YK Hong","og_description":"I grew up in a country where being queer or being trans was illegal. 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