Mick Hartley

I don't know if it's a UK/US difference, but whereas our American ventriloquist teacher was busy celebrating Non-Binary Awareness Week, here – at least at UCL – it's International Non-Binary People’s Day. We should be grateful for small mercies.

Some advice:

Respect other people’s pronouns

When speaking about an individual and their work, ensure you use the correct pronouns. If you make a mistake and someone corrects you, don’t panic, just briefly apologise and try your best to use their correct pronouns in future.  
 
If you notice someone else making a mistake, depending on the context and your relationship with the person, you could politely correct them either directly or indirectly. 
 
A good tip for encouraging respectful pronoun usage is, if you know someone uses ‘they/them’ pronouns, don’t shy away from using them in conversation when discussing them or their work. This helps to get you into the habit of correctly gendering the person, as well as encouraging others to do the same. UCL's pronouns guidance has some more information.

Embed inclusivity in your day job

This can be done in so many ways depending on your role. If you’re an administrator, you might want to ensure your databases have gender neutral titles (such as Mx). If you work in communications, you might want to spotlight stories from non-binary students or staff members to increase visibility. If you want ideas on where to start, speak with your local EDI committee or Inclusion Lead.

On the other hand, there's this strange contribution:

For me the ‘joy’ is more relief. I’ve never felt male (or female) and my feelings about my gender are, to paraphrase Dylan Moran, ‘I cannot begin to describe how much I don’t care’. Over the years I’ve learned to dodge conversations e.g. about ‘all men use porn’ (nope) and so on. It was a relief to get affirmation that I didn’t need to care. But to assert it (e.g. by wearing skirts) would make it more of a big deal than it is for me, so I have sort of gone full circle and dress as a man and use male pronouns to remain invisible as nonbinary. Because the thought of having to explain something I am utterly indifferent to makes me want to scream. I guess that’s also something I wish more people understood, that it can constitute entirely as a lack of gender (but that’s only one manifestation). – 54 year old white ‘man’, Associate Professor (Teaching)

"Dress as a man and use male pronouns to remain invisible as nonbinary". Well, there's an interesting strategy. Why don't we all do that, and save ourselves a lot of bother?