wait, is “buddy” gendered?
I like to mix it up. but language is context dependent. “buddy” is a go-to of mine, and feels entirely gender neutral.
“my people” is good for plural.
“friend” is good as long as you have the right rhythm with it. Like, you know, in the second person, like “hello, friend.”
“bro” obviously doesn’t work, but I have casually referred to trans friends as “broham” and they didn’t seem to mind. I don’t do it often, but sometimes mixing in a good bro pun is more fun that way… go a little over the top, call somebody brobrahk brobrahma, nobody’s going to be thinking that you’re implying gender, it’s an equally ridiculous term to call anybody by. Similarly, although context dependent, there are implicitly feminine words you can use, although some of them can be degrading in the wrong context. “Gurl,” “bitch,” and “slut” can work, as long as it’s ridiculous enough in context not to be taken seriously. I’m a guy, I’ve had friends call me these. “Gurl” might not be the best for a nonbinary friend or a trans man friend, so be careful with it.
I don’t know, I only have a few nonbinary friends, I guess, and I mostly refer to most of them by their names.
whatsapp for family, because that’s where family is.
nobody uses facebook to connect with family, they use facebook to connect with people from high school they haven’t seen in 15 years and don’t care enough about to actually keep in touch.