Why he/him nonbinary?

Why not?

Okay, that’s a very small answer on such a bigger subject, and a lot of it whittles down to gender is fluid.

Right, so now that we’ve covered that.

In my latest book Cassidy is Queen, gender is a huge factor in the story. Cassidy is going on his own journey of self-discovery and just so happens to stumble upon Casper, who yes, is the love interest in this situation but is also pretty new to the whole gender journey thing – and if you’ve ever been on this gender journey you know it isn’t in anyway linear.

Casper and Cassidy © Queer Joy Art

Casper is there as a little helping hand, someone with just a bit more information, someone who’s maybe only two steps ahead so can offer guidance to Cassidy – even if it is minimal, but something worth remembering is that Casper is only just getting started too.

Casper identifies as nonbinary, uses he/him pronouns and is okay with typically male terms of endearment (mate, lad, dude etc.). Casper’s from the North, if you’re not love, you’re mate here and that is also an important part of his language and what he accepts when it comes to other people referencing to him.

Cassidy is genderqueer, he also uses he/him pronouns but is more fluid with his terms of endearment, I mean, who hasn’t called him Queen.

Do you know what else is really important about these two facts? It’s that this is how they feel now. So for a rare turn of events, Cassidy is Queen is set right now, as in they are 2023 alumni of Ravenwood School for Boys, and the Goldstein Academy respectfully. This book starts in January 2023, and ends in May 2023. That is a really short amount of time, if you think about it.

Cassidy only just discovers his word by the end of the book, and that isn’t the end of the gender journey, that’s not how that works, now everything else begins. Now Cassidy can play with pronouns, or figure out what words he likes, or doesn’t in relation to him, and that is the place that Casper is during the book.

They’re are both only just learning their language, they’re only just exploring further than what they’d always known, and they’re both in single-sex schools. Give them a break!

Real life interjection here. Hi, I’m nonbinary. I attended a single-sex school and honestly it was the most uncomfortable years of my life – but, at the time I had no idea why. I just knew I wasn’t like the others in my class, and I knew something was wrong with me. I didn’t discover the word nonbinary until I was twenty-four, and I’d been out of school eight years! Some journeys have massive roadblocks that sometimes you can’t identify until years down the line – which isn’t to say that I’d have come out as nonbinary if I’d have been in a mixed school (I left in 2011), I could never say for sure, but I know when I went to college and my class had a 80/20 boys to girls split, I definitely felt better in myself – I digress.

Nonbinary is such a huge gender, to me at least. It isn’t a third gender, and it certainly isn’t binary, there is not one way to be nonbinary, there is not one set of pronouns, or labels, or a list of approved affectionate terms everyone’s gender is expressed differently and we circle back to my opening statement of gender is fluid.

Dante © Queer Joy Art

I have multiple nonbinary folx in my books who follow in Cassidy and Casper’s footsteps. There’s Dante, the next crowned Queen of Ravenwood and featuring in I Am Sebastian, who discovers their pronouns through the book and makes an active change to they/them, whilst not being quite sure on their label just yet.

There is Skylar Reynolds – the infamous Skylar Reynolds, who we meet in Just Like a Fairy Tale, Sky was raised a theybie by their fathers and wished to continue using they/them pronouns as they felt they represented them best. They are a huge (and loud) advocate for nonbinary rights!

Also in Fairy Tale we meet Oakley May (he/they), Sam Addison (he/him) and Frankie Cook (he/him). Oakley is Sky’s partner, and started his genderqueer journey when they were fifteen. They use he and they interchangeably. Sam and Frankie the renown Butterfly Boys who created the butterfly, cocoon, caterpillar metaphor are also partners, Frankie is pregnant with their first child during Fairy Tale.

Frankie’s journey started when he was eleven, and he felt that trans was the most accurate label for himself, during his early transition he began to explore other options and soon settled on nonbinary being a more accurate fit. He still uses he/him pronouns but is very fluid with the language he uses to refer to himself. Sam came out as nonbinary when he was fifteen, after extensive research on his part. He knows nonbinary is the right label for him, whilst also knowing he is comfortable with he/him pronouns. Sam presents very masc a lot of the time and has faced a lot of adversaries because of this.

We also meet Riley May, Luca’s grandpa in Just Like a Fairy Tale who much like Frankie originally transitioned to male. Riley identified as trans for many years before discovering nonbinary in his forties, Riley’s pronouns are a lot more fluid especially as they get older.

And, of course how can I not mention Enzo and Mateo. Enzo is Luca’s father’s sibling – has anyone found a gender-neutral term for aunt/uncle yet? Enzo uses zie/zir pronouns and has since zir was fourteen when zir discovered zir was nonbinary – it took a lot more attempts to decide on zies name however!

Mateo works with Luca in the LGBTea shop, Mateo uses xie/xir pronouns and is honestly a queer force to be reckoned with – there’s a lot more exploring to be done with Mateo, so stay tuned!

In Biro Tattoo’s we meet Caleb McLoughlin they/them, who came out at thirteen and owned it! They are a whole advocate for queers and has a habit of taking newly hatched queers under their wing. They eventually end up the partner in crime to Enzo (and yes they live happily ever after).

Caleb © Queer Joy Art

Dante © Queer Joy Art

Last, but not at all least is Quincy from Adolescent Summers! Quincy comes out at thirteen as nonbinary, and as they are an international TV star they cause all kinds of chaos backstage. The studio they work for does a lot of things wrong but one thing is for sure, Quincy knows who they are, and is proud of that – and also makes a lot of side money on their OnlyFans!

I try my best to show so many different sides, and to explore as many different nonbinary identities as possible throughout all my books. It of course isn’t entirely possible to squeeze every strand of the umbrella into one story, or even into one person – you may read Casper and not resonate with him, but meet Enzo later and be kindred spirits and that is why it’s so important to me to feature all types of nonbinary and genderqueer people, which, yes includes he/him nonbinary and always will, because all types of gender expression is valid and no two journeys are even remotely alike.