A non-binary activist has spoken out and claimed there are as many genders as there are people while insisting that the future is genderless.
Alok Vaid-Menon is a 31-year-old American writer, performer, and media personality who is non-binary, transfeminine, and uses they/them pronouns.
This week, amid their tour of New Zealand and Australia, the social media influencer also appeared on ABC to speak about different gender identities and proclaim that the options are endless.
As the young performer insisted, the world in the future will likely be one without a gender binary, whereas people will feel free to identify themselves outside the male/female sector.
“There’s as many genders as there are people,” Vaid-Menon said.
They added: “A lot of people mistake what I’m trying to do as erasing their right to be a man or a woman, when in fact I’m championing for it.
“What I’m championing for is that each person gets to determine their own gender.”
The transfeminine comedian went on to take a jab at fellow comics as they accused them of disguising their misogyny as a comedy while saying they want to show people “it’s not funny to make fun of trans people for existing.”
Alok continued: “I also feel like right now, people only define trans people as hypersensitive, like we can’t take the joke, like we’re just curmudgeonly social justice warriors.
“When, in my experience, when you spend your entire life being the butt of the joke, you learn how to tell a good joke. I wanted to show people that we are capable of joy, that actually amidst all the discrimination and violence, there’s also so much fun to be had.”
As the 31-year-old explained, their tour of Australia also serves as a healing journey for the hate crime they were subjected to in Melbourne several years ago.
Vaid-Menon vowed to include the saddening experience in their comedy show and address the attacker directly.
Inviting fans to watch their show and see for themselves that comedy, like gender, doesn’t have to be binary, the performer concluded:
“I try to weave in poetry and comedy, sorrow and joy, because it’s nonbinary, it’s honest.
“In my show I wanted to be honest to what we live as humans. We’re far more enormous and tremendous than any binary allows us.”
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