Happy Non-Gestating Person Day to All Who Celebrate
As a non-binary scholar of decolonial gender studies and intersectional reproductive justice (with two doctoral degrees from institutions that have since issued appropriate land acknowledgments), I find myself once again compelled to mark this occasion with both celebration and critical reflection.
Today we observe what was formerly known as “Father’s Day” — a holiday that, like so many traditions rooted in biological essentialism and toxic masculinity, has long served to marginalize and erase. That is why I greet you with the far more inclusive salutation: Happy Non-Gestating Person Day to all those who celebrate.
The term “father” carries with it centuries of cisheteronormative baggage and patriarchal dominance. It reduces individuals with the capacity for sperm contribution to a mere biological function, ignoring the rich tapestry of identities that exist beyond the outdated male/female binary. Not everyone who has nurtured life identifies as a father. Not everyone who identifies as a father has contributed genetic material. And not everyone who has contributed genetic material is a father in the socially constructed sense. To continue centering the word “father” is to uphold a colonial, white-supremacist framework that privileges certain reproductive outcomes over others.
Consider the violence inherent in a holiday that honors only those who have participated in the act of siring. What message does this send to trans women, non-binary individuals, and those who have chosen the path of non-procreative joy? It tells them their experiences are secondary. It tells adoptive parents, step-parents, chosen-family nurturers, and ethical sperm donors that their labor is less worthy of national recognition. Worst of all, it centers the experiences of cis men in a way that feels, frankly, exclusionary in 2026.
This is why progressive municipalities, universities, and corporations have rightly begun transitioning to “Non-Gestating Person Day” observances. Greeting cards now read “Happy NGP Day,” brunch specials feature “ally-to-the-uterus” mimosas, and many school districts have replaced the outdated crafts of yesteryear with more affirming activities such as pronoun affirmation circles and worksheets on the social construction of paternity.
Of course, there remain reactionary voices who cling bitterly to phrases like “Happy Father’s Day.” They accuse us of erasing men. On the contrary, we are liberating everyone from the rigid constraints of biological destiny. True liberation means no longer tying identity or celebration to the reductive act of genetic contribution. A non-gestating person who provides emotional labor to their polycule is every bit as deserving of recognition as someone who has fulfilled the patriarchal role of “dad.”
As we move forward, I call upon all institutions to fully retire “Father’s Day” from official calendars. Let us instead invest in International Non-Gestating Person Day programming, complete with mandatory sensitivity trainings and reparative grants for those historically harmed by paternalist rhetoric.
To every non-gestating person, gestating person’s partner, sperm ally, caregiver, and chosen family member who chooses to observe this day in whatever way feels authentic to their truth: I see you. I validate you. And I celebrate you.
Happy Non-Gestating Person Day.
Mx. Sandra Chou, PhD, PhD, is a Visiting Professor of Queer Reproductive Futures at the Institute for Liberatory Linguistics and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Decolonizing Biology.
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