Sadiya Wright doesn’t want their gender identity to fit into anyone else’s box.

“It just got to the point where one day I was like, you know what? I don't feel comfortable identifying as a woman. I don't feel comfortable either identifying as a man. I came across, you know, non-binary as being more fitting for me," says Wright, an MSW intern with the Pride Center of the Capital Region. "It seems as though everything when it comes colors, when it comes to clothing and whatnot, it seems like everything's associated with a gender."

Period products are another topic that always seems to be gendered as “feminine,” even though there are people who menstruate who identify in different ways, like Wright, who is non-binary.

“If we are consistently calling something a feminine product like we have done for a very long time, and the person who needs it identifies as a man, a masculine man who just happens to also ovulate because of their body, there's a problem there. Language-wise, we're ignoring a whole group of people," said Nathaniel Gray, executive director of the Pride Center of the Capital Region, who also holds a masters in social work.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has signed legislation which replaces the phrase “feminine hygiene products” with the gender nonspecific phrase “menstrual products.”

“Words have power. They have some emotions behind it, and they have some deeper meanings behind it. But they are powerful, and they do impact folks," said Wright.

Moving forward, any time the state has a press release, policy or future legislation, the language will now reflect that change.

“[We’re] hoping to normalize this amongst the general public so that we just, again, continue to move away from past references and really think about how we move forward in our language, and how we move forward in our own thinking, too," said Johanne Morne, acting executive deputy commissioner of the state Department of Health.