As non-binary representation grows, more people in the public eye are finding the confidence to share their gender identity with the world. And in doing so, non-binary celebrities can also help others to develop confidence in themselves.
If you need a little refresher on gender identities, it can help to consider gender as a spectrum.
“The physical features that you were born with (your biological sex) do not necessarily define your gender,” the National Youth Mental Health Foundation, headspace, explains on its website:
“The gender spectrum includes numerous identities including male, female, a mixture of both, no gender, a fluid gender, or another gender.”
While some people fall on either side of it (as either male or female), others fall somewhere in between.
These people might describe themselves as non-binary or gender fluid, which means that they don’t necessarily identify with a certain gender or with gender at all.
Many non-binary people like to use they/them but others may stick with the pronouns they were assigned at birth or the ones they feel closest too on the spectrum.
When people like these non-binary celebs choose to live as their authentic selves in the public eye, it gives other queer (and especially non-binary) people the courage to share who they really are.
Emma Corrin
Emma Corrin, who is best known for their portrayal of Princess Diana in season four of Netflix series The Crown, came out as non-binary in 2021.
“I feel much more seen when I’m referred to as ‘they,” the actor told Vogue in 2022, “I’m working out all this complex gender and sexuality stuff,” they noted. “In my mind, gender just isn’t something that feels fixed and I don’t know if it ever will be; there might always be some fluidity there for me.”
Bella Ramsey
Bella Ramsey revealed they identifies as non-binary and uses any pronouns in an interview to The New York Times in January 2023.
another interview with GQ, Ramsey opened up about playing female characters saying, “In Catherine Called Birdy, I was in dresses. Young Elizabeth, I was in a corset. And I felt super powerful in that.”
“Playing these more feminine characters is a chance to be something so opposite to myself, and it’s really fun.”
But in a later interview for the July 2023 edition of British Vogue, Ramsey revealed it wasn’t always that simple.
“I had a lot of anxiety around pronouns,” the actor said. “When The Last of Us first came out, I was like, ‘Everyone just call me “she” because I look like a “she” to you, so it’s fine.’ But now I’m able to vocalise it more, being called ‘they’ is the most truthful thing for me. That’s who I am the most.”
There were also reports of an Instagram story from Ramsey in October 2023, stating “I don’t mind which pronouns you use”.
In this situation, using gender-neutral pronouns (they, them, theirs) or the person’s name are ways to avoid misgendering. As Diversity Australia Associate Director Gāya Surendorff explains in a blog post: “Both accidental and intentional misgendering can negatively impact an individual’s wellbeing.”
Sam Smith
Sam Smith confirmed their identity to be non-binary via an Instagram post in 2019, when they wrote “after a lifetime of being at war with my gender I’ve decided to embrace myself for who I am, inside and out.”
The singer first discussed their gender fluidity during a conversation on Jameela Jamil’s podcast, when Smith said “I’m not male or female, I think I flow somewhere in between. It’s all on the spectrum.”
Emma D’Arcy
Emma D’Arcy, who is best known for playing Rhaenyra Targaryen in HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, goes by the pronouns they/them.
“I’m a non-binary person. I’ve always found myself both pulled and repelled by masculine and feminine identity,” the actor told Entertainment Weekly in 2022.
D’Arcy also discussed playing female roles in a 2022 interview with The Independent, stating: “I really like playing women and I’m really good at it. My worst-case scenario is that suddenly people tell me what I can and can’t play. I have all the tools necessary to play women. I lived as one for a long time; people still think I am one. It’s like, ‘Let me do my job; I’m really good at it.”
D’Arcy has also spoken about how clothing can be ‘armour’ for non-binary people. In a 2023 interview with Highsnobriety Magazine, D’Arcy said: “Clothing, for most people, is central to who they are and how they express themselves. But for gender-fluid or trans people, clothes play an even more fundamental role.”
Sara Ramirez
Since starting their career on Grey’s Anatomy, Sara Ramirez has played a number of interesting roles, including the polarising Chez Diaz in And Just Like That. Like their character in the show, Ramirez also identifies as non-binary.
“In me is the capacity to be girlish boy, boyish girl, boyish boy, girlish girl, all, neither, #nonbinary”,” the actor wrote on Instagram.
Jonathan Van Ness
Queer Eye’s beauty expert Jonathan Van Ness revealed their non-binary identity in an interview with Out Magazine in 2019.
The Queer Eye star told the magazine, “The older I get, the more I think that I’m non-binary—I’m gender nonconforming.”
“I didn’t think I was allowed to be non-conforming or genderqueer or non-binary—I was just always like ‘a gay man’ because that’s just the label I thought I had to be.”
When it comes to pronouns, Van Ness also said “I am literally ok with ‘he’, ‘she’, or ‘they’”.
Nico Tortorella
You might recognise Nico Tortorella from their role in Younger, when they played the protagonist’s much younger love interest, Josh. Tortorella identifies as gender fluid and has openly discussed both his gender and sexuality for years. In 2018, during a discussion with RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Trinity Taylor, they said: “I just pretty recently have come to terms with the fact that maybe I am not fully cisgender.”
When asked about gender fluidity in a 2023 interview on NBC News’ YouTube channel, Tortorella said: “my relationship to gender isn’t fixed, it’s not just one thing.”
Tortorella is married to Bethany Meyers, who also identifies as non-binary.
Kehlani
While R&B singer Kehlani has been a publicly queer figure since 2018, they discussed their pronouns later. After changing their pronouns on social media to she/they, Kehlani told Byrdie, “I don’t mind when people say ‘she’ at all, but something feels really affirming when people say ‘they’.”
Lachlan Watson
Known for playing the part of Susie Putnam in the Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina, Lachlan Watson first came out as trans before realising they were non-binary.
“I realized in [beginning to transition], the problem wasn’t that I wasn’t male; the problem was just that I was female,” they told MTV.
“I didn’t want the world to look at my body and inherently deem me female and inherently decide just by looking at me what I can or cannot do, how I’m supposed to sound, what I’m supposed to say, what my career is going to look like, how I’m supposed to act, my mannerisms. Everything could have been deemed by taking one look at my body because society assumes that’s what we’re bred and born to do…Seeing myself as female every time I look in the mirror is painful in a way I will never be able to describe.”
Amandla Stenbnerg
You might recognise Amandla Stenbnerg for their role as Rue in The Hunger Games but the actor has also recently made a name for themselves for roles in films such as The Hate U Give. The actor revealed they use the pronouns she/they on Tumblr back in 2016, explaining “they/them makes me feel comfortable.”
Dua Saleh
Sex Education fans will know Dua Saleh for their portrayal Cal, a non-binary character in the show. Saleh has a little in common with their Sex Education character as they identify as non-binary as well.
“Hey I know I’m already out and I love the pronouns that I use they/them/theirs & he/him/his but I’ve also been referring to myself with the neopronouns xe/xyr/xim #NationalComingOutDay,” Saleh wrote on Twitter in August 2020.
Ruby Rose
Ruby Rose uses she/they pronouns and has been vocal about their fluid experience with gender. In 2014, Rose released the short film Break Free, which is described on IMDb as “about gender roles, Trans, and what it is like to have an identity that deviates from the status quo”.
Rose also told The Guardian in 2021: “For a long time, I thought there was something a bit wrong with me, or that I wasn’t the gender I was meant to be.”
“It took years, but eventually, I came to a place where I went: ‘OK, I think I’m just very androgynous and very in tune with the masculine energy,” Rose said.
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