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Non-binary and gender non-conforming people don’t yet have legal recognition in Switzerland. Activist organizations asked the government to address this issue, and it did. It stated that the social conditions have not been met so far, even though it recognizes that the LGBTQIA+ population is among the most affected by social inequalities. So, the government acknowledges the problem, but refuses to develop a way to categorize the people suffering from it, which could immensely help in finding ways to fix this issue. The fact that they don’t take into account this part of the population shows a representation problem.

The goal of my project is to raise awareness of two things: non-binary people exist and have problems that need to be addressed at the societal level, and the government doesn’t want to take responsibility for it, attempting to deny the very existence of non-binary people. The recent societal shift towards more acceptance of marginalized communities makes me confident that these problems will be addressed by the government in the foreseeable future. I hope that my project will accelerate this societal shift and push the government to act.

To achieve this, I created many maps, graphs, and pie charts with the help of a cartographer. These visuals focus on representation and inequities, using only the official numbers from the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) and concentrating solely on the non-binary part of the population. All of them are empty because non-binary people are non-existent in FSO’s data. This illustrates how invisible this part of the population is due to the lack of statistical representation and information.

In order to contrast that, I recorded interviews with non-binary people about the subjects I address in the charts. A directional loudspeaker will be placed on top of every billboard with charts, playing the interviews. Another speaker will be placed in the room, playing a loud, single and high pitched tone at random times. This sound should be uncomfortable for the people in the space, feeling like it’s observing and censoring them.

In conclusion, Switzerland's lack of legal recognition for non-binary individuals reveals a significant representation problem within the government. My project, employing visual representations and personal interviews, aims to bring attention to this issue and accelerate the societal shift towards greater acceptance. By highlighting the invisibility of non-binary people in official statistics, I hope to push the government to take concrete steps in acknowledging and addressing the specific needs of this marginalized community.