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Non-Binary

Maxigender

All the genders available to you. Pangender with the limit written into the word.

  • One of twenty-eight Non-Binary identities
  • No settled flag
  • 3 min read
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A shorter entry: the essentials, written to the same standard. The fuller guides are on the main identities.

What it is

Maxigender means all the genders available to you. Not every gender that has ever existed: the ones within reach of your own culture and your own life. Canada's TERMIUM Plus terminology bank records it as a synonym of pangender and defines the person as having all the genders culturally available to them. That limit is the whole reason the word exists.

The argument behind it. Pan means all, and all genders rubbed people the wrong way: Two-Spirit, hijra and other closed genders belong to peoples, and nobody can hold them all. Maxigender was put forward as a way to say the same thing without the overreach. Pangender people replied that the limit was always built into their word. The creator of the pangender flag wrote in 2017 that all genders available to you was already what pangender meant, and asked that maxigender not be used to invalidate pangender. Both words are still in use; both camps are right about their own word.

What it is not. It is not several countable genders; that is polygender or multigender. It is not a gender that moves; that is genderfluid. And it is not a licence: the limit is the content. Honesty about the record: the community wiki this site checks has no page for it, and the two wikis that do have one blocked our fetch. The sources below are a government terminology bank and two community posts, which is thinner than most words on this site.

Pronouns

No pangender or maxigender pronoun exists. They/them is the common public answer; rotating sets, all sets, or one fixed set for life are all in use. A plural gender does not require plural pronouns.

Does this sound like you?

Not a man, not a woman describes a subtraction. What you feel is addition.
You have a private list of genders that are not yours to claim, and you keep to it without being asked.
You reached for pangender, read the arguments, and wanted a word that carried the limit so you would not have to keep explaining it.
Being read as one thing permanently is the part that is wrong. Being read as any of them is fine.
Someone said pick one, for simplicity, and it felt like being asked which limb to keep.
The phrase all genders embarrasses you slightly and describes you exactly.

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Nearby identities

The distinction is the useful part.

Pangender

Same territory, older word, larger community. Most pangender people already mean all genders available to me. If the argument does not bother you, pangender is the word more people know.

Compare Maxigender and Pangender →
Omnigender

Usually a straight synonym for pangender; the terminology bank lists all three together. Ask what someone means rather than assuming.

Compare Maxigender and Omnigender →
Polygender

Several genders, countable and named. If your set is three or four and stable, polygender fits closer than any all word.

Compare Maxigender and Polygender →
Multigender

The umbrella for having more than one gender at all. Maxigender sits inside it at the wide end.

Compare Maxigender and Multigender →
Genderfluid

Movement, not quantity. Fluid people are usually one thing at a time. If the honest answer to what are you now is a list, you are here; if it is a single word that changes, look there.

Compare Maxigender and Genderfluid →

It might not be you if…

  • You can count them and the number is two. Bigender says it in one word.
  • Your gender moves but is only ever one thing at a time. That is genderfluid.
  • You want all to include genders that belong to other peoples. The limit is the word. Without it you are describing something else, and something people will rightly object to.
  • The plural part does not ring and what you actually want is to be read as neither. The non-binary page is yours.

Questions people ask

Is maxigender just pangender?

Nearly. The terminology bank lists them as synonyms with the same definition. The difference is history: maxigender was proposed to make the cultural limit explicit; pangender people say the limit was always there. Use whichever you can defend without getting tired.

Isn't claiming all genders appropriation?

It would be if it meant literally all. Maxigender exists to say it doesn't: all the genders available to you, in your own culture and life. Closed genders like Two-Spirit or hijra are not on that list for outsiders, and saying so is part of using the word properly.

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MyGender Independent reference on gender identity

Last updated · How these pages are written and checked

No flag is shown because none is settled. Text: written from how people who use the word Maxigender describe it.

Sources:

This is not a clinical instrument, not a diagnosis, and not evidence of anything about anyone. It describes experiences so you can recognise your own — or rule them out.