Me, Myself, They (Life Beyond the Binary)

“I am non-binary, neither man nor woman, and yes, I exist. This is my story of transformation.”

On May 7, 2018, Joshua M. Ferguson made history by becoming the first person to receive a non-binary birth certificate with an “X” designation in the province of Ontario — the first jurisdiction in the world to offer four options for birth certificates: M, F, X, or no gender marker. Me, Myself, They: A Non-Binary Life chronicles Ferguson’s extraordinary journey of transformation to become the celebrated non-binary filmmaker, scholar, and advocate for trans rights they are today. Beginning with their birth and early childhood years of gender freedom spent dancing and singing along to Jem, Madonna, and Cyndi Lauper, Ferguson recounts the tumultuous evolution of their identity, including traumatizing experiences with gender conversion therapy, bullying, depression, sexual assault, and violent physical assault. But Ferguson’s journey is above all about survival, transformation, and self-acceptance. Through their impassioned storytelling, we learn what it means to reclaim one’s identity and to live beyond the binary.

Me, Myself, They is a powerful, honest, and inspirational memoir that explains what it feels like to never truly fit into the prescribed roles of boy or girl, woman or man. By combining personal and intimate reflections with an informed analysis of the ongoing shift in contemporary attitudes towards sex and gender, Ferguson calls for the societal and cultural recognition of non-binary genders and an inclusive understanding of the rich diversity of human identity.