Nonhumanity and gender

The relationship between nonhumanity and gender has been frequently discussed. There are mixed opinions on how interrelated the two categories are broadly, with some people considering nonhumanity a type of queerness itself, and some feeling that they should never be compared. Otherkin and furries have been likened to transgender people by people both inside and outside the communities, in both positive and negative lights. Transgender nonhumans have written extensively about their experiences at the intersection of these two identities. Journalists and researchers have attempted to use transgender identity as a frame of reference for understanding nonhuman identities. In recent years, otherkin and furries have been invoked in court cases as being related to, or sometimes even a subtype of, being transgender.

Many transspecies people choose to identify as such because they are transgender, and consider the experience of their nonhuman identity to parallel that of their gender identity.

Gender diversity in nonhuman communities

Many community members cite anecdotal evidence to suggest that a substantial percentage, or even the majority, of nonhumans are transgender or gender diverse. Academic studies report a slightly higher incidence compared to the general population, while community surveys frequently report much higher numbers.

Survey results published in 2019 by tumblr user pantomorph, targeting alterhumans broadly, reported that 82.2% of respondants were transgender or otherwise not cisgender. A survey targeting therians and otherkin specifically, run by youtuber PinkDolphin in 2020, showed only 23.2% of respondants explicitly self-reporting as cisgender. In 2021, Lopori published survey results wherein 34% of respondants stated that they were transgender, and 48.1% stated that they were nonbinary. Page Shepard, Orion Scribner and Arethinn aTinderel discuss the possibility that some of these surveys overrepresent gender diverse experiences because of their distribution on tumblr.

Dysphoria, transition and presentation

The experience of gender dysphoria is complicated by additionally experiencing species dysphoria.

Some people report feeling species dysphoria their entire life, as their body is incongruent from birth, while their gender dysphoria came to the fore around puberty. Relatedly, some state that their species dysphoria began to intensify once their gender dysphoria was resolved.

Some interventions typically associated with gender are sought by nonhumans for species-affirming reasons in addition to or instead of gender-affirming reasons. For example, a person may desire top surgery for a reptilian flat chest, or testosterone for body hair resembling fur.

Some transgender nonhumans have expressed frustration towards the stigmatization of species dysphoria. Some have attested to their gender dysphoria being taken less seriously when they are open about their species dysphoria. They have also lamented how comparatively difficult it is to relieve species dysphoria, particularly in terms of the lack of options available and the costs associated with those options.