Gender Siblings - A Pride Story

Chapter 1 - Ruby?

I remember it vividly. The day they came out as agender. Before that, I had no idea what being transgender was. I didn’t even know what being gay was. They had come down from their room for dinner (which happened to be Chicken Tikka Masala, my favourite) when they said it.
“Do you know what being transgender means?” they quizzed me and my parents.
“No,” I answered between mouthfuls of rice. Our parents stayed silent whilst she answered.
“It means your gender does not align with the * you were assigned at birth,” Ash explained.
“So, like, a boy who actually is a girl?” I asked curiously.
“Yeah, that’s it,” Ash replied.
“So now you’re going to say you identify as male now, are you?” Mum asked.
“I haven’t finished explaining,” Ash continued, glaring at our mother. “It is also possible to be in the middle, and be a different gender entirely to male and female. That’s called being non-binary.”
“Not possible,” Dad replied flatly.
“It is!” Ash exclaimed, their face flushing red. “I am agender, meaning I am genderless. Please use they/them pronouns when addressing me and use my new gender-neutral name, Ash.”
“You are a girl, Rose. I will not call you Ash,” Dad refused. “Go to your room.” Ash did not move.
“Now!” Ash made the journey up the stairs and into their room, stomping on each step. I carried on eating in silence. The chicken tikka masala didn’t taste so good after that.
Maybe I’m non-binary. I feel different, though. As if I cannot be classified on a scale of maleness and femaleness or even neutralness. I do have a gender though. Even when I do finally escape this maze they call questioning, who will I be able to tell? There’s Ash. Being agender, they would be sure to accept me for who I am. But they would make me come out. At first, they might congratulate me for being brave enough to come out, and then encourage me to come out more forcefully until I had no choice but to tell our parents.
“Ruby?” Ash’s smiley face gazed into mine. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah..” I answered even though I truly was not okay with being called Ruby.
“You look confused,” they told me.
“Well, I am confused about my gender identity,” I told them out of the blue. Why did I say that?
“If you describe your gender, I can try and find you a label,” Ash suggested, sitting down beside me in the dandelion field.
“Well, I feel as if it is existent, but it cannot be classified on a scale of maleness or femaleness,” I answered, trying to make it sound as simple as possible.
“Have you heard of xenogenders?” Ash asked me.
“No, what are they?” I turned my head in their direction.
“Well, basically, xenogenders are genders that relate to something that would not normally be regarded as to do with genders. For example, catgender is a xenogender.”
“Hmm. That sounds like you’re on the right track. How many xenogenders are there?”
“A lot.” I sighed. It looked like I was going to have a lot of research to do before I found the xenogender that suited me.
“Also, can you not tell our parents about my gender until I’ve properly figured it out?” It wasn’t much of a request; I just didn’t want Mum and Dad to find out before I was ready to tell them.
“Sure!” Ash replied. It was a promise I would have to rely on them keeping.

This is really cool!

Amazing!

The Show and Tell forums is for projects and studios only. You can post this here, though.

I'll move this over to the “Things I'm Making and Creating” section for you - that's a better fit for this kind of topic

Woah!! This is awesome!

This is really cool! I love the story!