Breaking the Binary: Understanding Concerns and Realities of Queer Persons assigned Gender Female at Birth across a spectrum of lived gender identities

Breaking the Binary was published in April 2013 by LABIA - A Queer Feminist LBT Collective, based in Mumbai. The report includes life narratives of 50 PAGFB (“persons assigned gender female at birth”) who have been expected to conform to societal norms on gender and sexuality. Through these narratives, the report presents novel perspectives on the gender system. It hopes to imagine an inclusive, transformative politics that questions existing gender binary. The questions asked in the survey look at lived experiences in family life, school, the workplace, dating and relationships, and public spaces like streets, transport, and toilet facilities. The survey also explores their relationship with their bodies, their clothes, naming themselves, and how they have found solace and community in queer groups. The final chapter of this report focusses on how to build a future where gender boundaries are “equal, porous, multiple”. This 118-page document is divided into seven sections: First Things First (Section 1); Mapping the Terrain (Section 2); Lived Realities (Section 3); Binary Gender is Just Another Imagined Norm (Section 4); Queer Groups: An Evolving Understanding (Section 5); Towards a Vision of the Future (Section 6); and Towards a Porosity of Gender Boundaries (Section 7).