More than one million American adults identify as nonbinary, according to a new study from the Williams Institute.
The institute, under the direction of the UCLA School of Law, analyzed data from two previous studies collected between 2016 and 2018, and determined that there are now 1.2 million nonbinary LGBTQ adults living in the country in a first-of-its-kind study.
Nonbinary people do not identify as either male or female, and many use 'they' or 'them' pronouns.
Bianca Wilson, one of the authors of the study, said the new estimate is meaningful to show lawmakers exactly who they are affecting when they pass legislation to protect against gender-identity-based discrimination.
'That number says: "This is part of who you're talking about when executive orders are signed to protect people against discrimination,'" she told The Washington Post.
A study by the Williams Institute revealed that a majority of nonbinary people were younger than 30, lived in a city and were experiencing mental health issues
A majority of those surveyed in the study reported to be younger than 30, living in a city and were living below the poverty line.
More than half of the respondents were white, the study shows, with 16 percent reported to be multiracial, 15 percent Hispanic and 9 percent black.
Seventy-six percent of the respondents were reported to be between the ages of 18 and 29, with more than one in 10 LGBTQ adults between the ages of 18 and 60 identifying as nonbinary, according to the study.
More than three-quarters were 29 or younger, the survey showed, and nearly 90 percent were living in a city.
Although most identified as cisgender - meaning they identify with the gender correlating to the sex they were assigned at birth, 32.1 percent of transgender adults identify as nonbinary.
'Younger folks are helping to push the language for how to talk about gender in ways that go beyond the man-woman continuum,' Wilson said, noting that it will be interesting to see if the older LGBTQ generations start using nonbinary terms, rather than traditional ones like 'butch,' 'femme,' or 'queen.'
'It's fair to assume that on the older end of the spectrum, this might be an underestimate,' she said. 'And that might be about the right language to describe how older folks think about nonbinary identities, but maybe not with these labels.'
Singer Janelle Monae came out as nonbinary last year. They are pictured here performing at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles in June 2018
Helena Darwin, a researcher at Stony Brook
