Ecter Identity / Menre

Ecter identity, also called Menre, refers to identities and identity systems that are outside the boundaries of "gender" itself. It's comparable to something like nonbinary is for the gender binary, except it is outside of gender itself. It's a gigantic umbrella term that can contain countless identification systems and experiences, each as varied and expansive as gender identity can be. Someone may also just have a general ecter, not one in a defined separate system. 

This can be a really difficult concept to understand. It opens the door to the idea that gender itself can have a vast realm of identity outside of it, while still filling a somewhat similar niche. Some ecters might feel similar in concept to gender identity, just with slight differences that make it an ecter, while others may be entirely different in a variety of ways, with no similarities to how gender works or is seen. 

Ecter comes from ect- which means outside, and -er, the same ending as gender. Broadly, this translates to "outside [of] gender." Menre, meanwhile, is taken from genre, and should be pronounced similarly (mahn-rah, not mehn-rey.) Ecter is intentionally meant to sound somewhat similar to gender, while menre is meant to be more general.