Turning it over in my head I’ve come to the conclusion the queer community is not ready or progressive enough to address its rampant TGNCphobia. It struggles to separate man from masculinity, male (gender) from the binary and unfortunately within non binary spaces there are pockets of gatekeeping exclusivity on what genders one is allowed to have or use when talking about exorsexism.
Add this all into the giant melting pot of an extremely transphobic and intersexist political landscape — I need to make a change for myself. That change while small that holds no bearing to anyone else is simply the act of using the words Virr (adult humans) / Virravn (adult non humans), Vael ( Works similar to the word male without the biology conflations) and Virrhood (similar to gender “hood” or experience words like manhood) alongside the pre existing words I’ve identified with; man, male and manhood.
I still identify as a man, I still believe manhood and male (gender) can be detached from the binary without having to be “one binary gender and something else” to be validated as a gender not strangled to death in a binary framework. The queer community as a whole isn’t ready for this and until it is I think finding pride, identification and empowerment through man-aligned gendered language unaffiliated with the binary would be a very freeing experience for me.