More and more congressional staffers are openly identifying as nonbinary, LegiStorm data shows.
For over a decade, LegiStorm collected data on staffer gender without needing any option other than female or male. That changed in June 2019, when LegiStorm received its first confirmation of a nonbinary staffer using they/them pronouns.
Since then, LegiStorm has seen a steady rise in those who identify as nonbinary and now lists two dozen current and former congressional and state staffers as nonbinary. While these individuals occasionally self-report their gender to LegiStorm, the data is collected mainly on the basis of any they/them pronouns that staffers list on their social media accounts or in other biographies.
It's unclear how much of the increase is due to more nonbinary individuals being hired in political offices and how much is due to staffers feeling increasingly safe to openly identify as nonbinary at work and on social media.
In 2020, Oklahoma State Rep. Mauree Turner (D) made history as the first openly nonbinary state legislator in U.S. history. A handful of lobbyists also list they/they pronouns on social media or biographies.
No members of U.S. Congress have been openly nonbinary.
