Dear creative staff of Steven Universe,

I really appreciate what you have done with Stevonnie and how you have treated the character. Stevonnie is a great addition to the show in many ways and I can tell that they have helped many NB and trans people I know feel accepted and they is a vast improvement on what we usually get in fiction. They aren’t evil, they aren’t treated as a deviant and they are accepted as who they are. You’ve overall done a good job with them (:

However, I feel the show would benefit from including or at least mentioning more non-binary, trans and gender fluid characters that weren’t fusions or magical in nature as I feel it would help improve diversity in fiction, make the show better and help show that us non-binary people are real and deserve respect.

I realized I was gender fluid mid last year after much soul searching and getting advice from friends. It felt so right and helped me understand so much more about myself. I’ve been wanting to see more representation of non-binary and gender fluid characters in fiction, which has sadly resulted in me getting lots of vile and hate thrown at me such as what happened back in March when I requested whether Blizzard would be willing to include a gender fluid character in Overwatch:

Like I said before, Stevonnie is great, however, as much I hate saying this, I struggle liking the character because they fall into a negative trope about NB people in fiction that pains me, the idea that all NB characters must be magical.

It’s a problem I’ve found most Sci-Fi and Fantasy has, where the only time gender fluid and NB characters are featured is when they are spirits/god-like/fusions/aliens/magical in nature and rarely if ever do the works acknowledge that NB people who aren’t magical exist. It gives the impression that we are this idea that can’t possibly exist in the real world, that there has to be a reason for having a NB character in a work rather than just being there like cis men or women and gives the impression that our gender isn’t real, that our gender is just a work of fiction that shouldn’t be taken seriously.

I think the show would really benefit from including non-binary and gender fluid characters that weren’t magical in nature or fusions, but were just normal humans. Even something as simple as a character who prefers using neutral pro-nouns like they and them or at least some acknowledgement that NB people exist in real life would be greatly appreciated and would go a long way. It would help show that our gender is real, valid and not a far out idea that only exists in the realm of fantasy.

Like I said, I don’t want Stevonnie to go away as many of my NB and trans friends do find them to be great and feel like for the first time they feel accepted in fiction and I would never want that to go away. But I feel that you can do more to make non-binary people like us feel more accepted and get more representation in the media.

Again, thank you so much for being so progressive and understanding about the LGBTQ+ community and social issues. It’s very clear that you are all really cool and progressive people and seem willing to listen. I’m so glad a show like Steven Universe exists and is helping so many people out there.

Kind regards,
Greene Scott