KENOCHORIC
Definition: Kenochoric is an umbrella term that describes identities, mainly gender, that is centered around the idea of kenopsia (a forlorn atmosphere of a place that is usually bustling with individuals, but is now empty and abandoned) among other things. These concepts can include the unknown, eerieness, the uncanny valley, obscurity, nostalgia, emptiness or vastness, liminal spaces, nonhumanity, and things that can evoke any or all of those things. Some examples of why someone might identify as kenochoric include: 1) Having a connection with, or simply being, uncanny, "liminal," creepy, or eerie. 2) Having a sense that one's identity is otherworldly, not "from here," or unable to be understood by "normal" individuals or "humanity." 3) Having a connection to obscurity as a concept, feeling as though one's identity is obscured, or having a tie to things that obscure other things, like fog, mist, darkness, etc. 4) One's identity feeling empty, lost, melancholic, or hollow. 5) Having a connection to large, confusing, or paradoxical locations or concepts. This can be things like space, the ocean, paradoxes themselves, etc. 6) Having some kind of disconnect, either with your identity, or feeling like your identity is disconnected from something. This might be genderlessness, gender apathy, feeling like your identity is distorted, etc. 7) Having a connection towards, or being, scary, offputting, disturbing, or generally causing fear. 8) A connection with the strange, nostalgic, and wistful, or having a general sense of strangeness and/or nostalgia. 9) Having an unstable, hard to define/name, or generally off relationship with your identity. It might feel this way for you, or your identity may just feel this way to others. 10) Having a connection with, or being, something that scares or unsettles you. 11) A sense that one's identity is not human, comes from being nonhuman, or cannot be described by humans.
Flag creator: kenochoric (2020)
Colour meanings: Black = the void, absence, emptiness, and darkness. Dark purple = disconnect with gender, obscurity and a difficulty to properly define itself. Purple = vast concepts and places, such as oceans and deep space. Light purple = liminal spaces, transitional spaces, the "boundary" between what was and what is.
INTERSEX
Definition: Intersex is a term for those born with physical sex traits that cannot be typically classified as wolffian (male) or müllerian (female). Variations may appear in a individual’s chromosomes, hormones, genitalia, gonads, secondary sex characteristics, such as phenotype, or some combination of these things. Intersex variations are observed in many animals including humans. According to the ISNA it is estimated that as many as 1.7% of individuals are born with intersex traits, however this may be an incorrect estimate, as many individuals are unknowingly intersex due to the fact that external genitalia is the only sex characteristic noticed at birth (in most cases). Intersex does not describe a specific body type but rather is an umbrella term for a broad range of variations/traits. Some intersex individuals may closely resemble one of the binary sexes, while others are closer to in between. An intersex individual may have characteristics of both the wolffian and müllerian sexes, characteristics that fall somewhere in-between wolffian and müllerian, and/or characteristics that don't fall into either. Intersex individuals may have any gender identity, including male, female, non-binary, etc. They may identify as cisgender or transgender, or possibly another gender modality such as ipsogender or ultergender, but they can use none at all or use intersex as its own modality. Intersex individuals can have any assigned gender at birth, some may be AMAB or AFAB because their variation of intersex was not noticed at birth. Others may be coercively assigned male/female at birth (CAMAB/CAFAB), meaning they had nonconsensual surgery preformed on them so their body more closely fits one of the binary sexes. In some rare cases they are AXAB. Each intersex individual has a unique relationship to their gender, assigned gender at birth, the gender they were raised as, and how that relates to their experience being intersex. Intersex is included in the LGBT+ community, though not all intersex individuals consider themself to be LGBT+ on the basis on being intersex. This is largely a personal choice based on how one's status as intersex has (or hasn't) affected their experiences. Someone who is not intersex is called dyadic, perisex, or endosex. Intersex is not an identity, but is something one is born as. Some intersex traits are identified at birth, while others may not be discovered until puberty or later in life (although, the variation was always present, just unnoticed). One cannot "transition to intersex". Dyadic individuals who desire mixed sex traits may identify as altersex.
Flag creator: Morgan Carpenter (2013)
Colour meanings: Yellow and purple = alternatives to the strongly-gendered colors of blue and pink. The purple circle in the middle = "wholeness and completeness" as well as "the right to be who and how we want to be."
