Go You, non-binary runners!

Sometimes you get an email that makes your day. 

That just happened to me now. 

This upcoming Saturday there will be a charitable 5K run in my neighborhood: I saw it posted in the Open Space where I often go for my walks or runs and decided to try and participate — as a non-binary athlete, of course. But, as I half expected, until yesterday there was no other “Gender” category than the usual, binary options of “Male” & “Female”. So I wrote to the organizers straight away, telling them how eager I was to run in this charitable neighborhood event but that I wouldn’t sign up unless there was an official “Non-binary” category reflecting both my gender identity and the legal gender-marker on my IDs. 

Well, I just got the reply from the organizers, saying, “Hi A***, We look forward to seeing you at the event. Do you need to be timed for the 5K run? M*** ” 

So I went back to the website and clicked the “Sign up” link anew and the Registrant form now has FOUR gender options: “Male”, “Female”, “Non-binary”, and “Prefer not to say” — another step forward for improving equity and inclusion — YAY!!!