Notable nonbinary people

    From Nonbinary Wiki
    Revision as of 06:06, 10 November 2019 by imported>Sekhet (Changing format of all entries, to balance the emphasis on each person's gender (which is necessary to justify their inclusion in a list of nonbinary people) with other information about them (to justify their inclusion in a list of notable people).)

    Notable nonbinary people will include celebrities such as musicians and performers, as well as historical figures and activists. There are many more nonbinary people in the world who aren't famous, but these are a few of those individuals that are well-known to some degree. Sorted alphabetically by surname, with a fair use or creative commons photo if possible.

    Olly Alexander

    Olly Alexander is the lead singer and songwriter for electropop band Years and Years.

    Olly Alexander
    • Born: July 15, 1990 (age 36)
    • Nationality: English
    • Pronouns: he, him (assumed; source needed)
    • Gender: Nonbinary. Alexander said, "I feel very nonbinary, and you know, I identify as gay and queer and nonbinary[...]"[1]
    • Profession: singer, songwriter, actor, and activist.
    • Wikipedia entry

    Justin Vivian Bond

    Justin Vivian Bond

    Justin Vivian Bond is a Tony-nominated (2007) performer who has received GLAAD (2000), Obie (2001), Bessie (2004), Ethyl (2007), and a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists (2012) awards.

    • Born: May 9, 1963 (age 63)
    • Nationality: USA
    • Pronouns: v, v's. A 2011 interview in The Guardian explained, "Bond is transgender and has adopted Vivian as a middle name and the pronoun 'v'. This is a means of rejecting the gender binary. Bond's website sets it all out: 'If I see or hear the words he or she, her or him, hers or his, in reference to me, I will take it either as a personal insult, a weak mind (easily forgivable), or (worst-case scenario) sloppy journalism.'[2]
    • Gender: Bond said, "for me to claim to be either a man or a woman, feels like a lie. My identity falls somewhere in the middle and is constantly shifting."[3] V's transition included estrogen therapy in order to appear more feminine,[4] choosing not to get a lower surgery.[5], and adopting the middle name of "Vivian."[4]
    • Profession: singer-songwriter, author, painter, performance artist, actor, and cabaret performer. Most famous for v's cabaret character Kiki DuRane.
    • Nonbinary Wiki entry / Wikipedia entry

    Kate Bornstein

    Kate Bornstein.

    Kate Bornstein is an influential writer on gender theory, publishing books on the subject from the 1990s to the present.

    • Born: March 15, 1948 (age 78)
    • Nationality: USA
    • Pronouns: they/them or she/her[6]
    • Gender: Nonbinary. Currently (as of 2019), Bornstein's site says they identify as nonbinary.[7] Bornstein has said, "I don't call myself a woman, and I know I'm not a man." Their transition included gender affirmation surgery.[8]
    • Profession: author, playwright, performance artist, and gender theorist
    • Nonbinary Wiki entry Wikipedia entry / Kate's Blog

    Jonathan Rachel Clynch

    Jonathan Rachel Clynch is a well-known journalist in Ireland.

    • Born: 1971 (age 55)
    • Nationality: Ireland
    • Pronouns: he (assumed; source needed)
    • Gender: genderfluid. "One of Irish broadcaster RTE’s best-known journalists just [in 2015] came out as 'gender fluid,' and the response so far seems wholly positive. ... The 44-year-old, who has yet to make a public statement, told his bosses that he wishes to now be known as Jonathan Rachel and would sometimes dress as a female. ... Clynch has worked with RTE for 16 years, often filling in on Radio One’s flagship 'News at One.' ... 'He has been open about it for a while now and his friends and family were all aware of his situation. He is going through a process at the moment and will speak about it in his own time and he hopes everyone will be respectful of that.'"[9]
    • Profession: broadcast journalist

    Ivan E. Coyote

    Ivan E. Coyote is a writer who has made significant contributions to the representation of queerness in Canadian literature. They have won the the ReLit Award for Best Fiction (2007), and the Stonewall Honor Book Award (2017).

    Miley Cyrus

    Miley Cyrus at 38th People's Choice Awards

    Miley Cyrus is a top-charting singer, songwriter, and actor who was included on the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in both 2008 and 2014.

    • Born: 23 November 1992 (age 34)
    • Nationality: USA
    • Pronouns: No preference expressed; journalists assume "she/her", possibly "she" on account of the 2019 album "She Is Miley Cyrus"
    • Gender: In a 2015 interview, Miley explained, “I didn’t want to be a boy, ... I kind of wanted to be nothing. I don’t relate to what people would say defines a girl or a boy, and I think that’s what I had to understand: Being a girl isn’t what I hate, it’s the box that I get put into.”[11]
    • Profession: Singer, songwriter, actor, activist for animal rights and LGBT rights
    • Wikipedia entry

    Sam de Leve

    Sam de Leve plays non-binary characters for the Geek & Sundry [3] and Saving Throw multimedia networks. They are also a dancer [4] and writer [5].

    • Nationality: USA
    • Pronouns: They/them [12]
    • Gender: nonbinary (source needed)
    • Profession: Actor, dancer, writer
    • IMDb

    Rain Dove

    Rain Dove uses her naturally androgynous look to model for both men's and women's lines of clothing.

    Dorian Electra

    • Born: June 25, 1992 (age 34)
    • Nationality: USA
    • Pronouns: They/them
    • Gender: genderfluid. "Styling is so important to me as a genderfluid person, to be able to say “I’m a very flaming flammable guy”... it’s just very satisfying, ’cause that’s how I see myself, but I know it’s not necessarily how other people see me – they still call me ‘ma’am’ and stuff like that."[13]
    • Profession: singer, songwriter
    • Their Wikipedia entry Their official site

    Public Universal Friend

    A portrait of the Public Universal Friend, from the Friend's biography written by David Hudson in 1821.

    The Public Universal Friend was a genderless evangelist who preached in the early eastern United States. The Public Universal Friend's theology was broadly similar to that of orthodox Quakers, attracting many followers who became the Society of Universal Friends. The Friend persuaded followers who owned slaves to free them. The followers of the Society included people who were black, and many unmarried women who took on prominent roles in their communities which were usually reserved for men.

    • Born: November 29, 1752, died July 1, 1819 (age 66)
    • Nationality: United States
    • Pronouns: No pronouns. The Friend asked not to be referred to with gendered pronouns. Followers respected these wishes, avoiding gender-specific pronouns even in private diaries, and referring only to "the Public Universal Friend" or short forms such as "the Friend" or "P.U.F."[14]
    • Gender: genderless. The Friend's transition started with a religious vision as part of a near-death experience at age 26, followed by a name change to the Public Universal Friend,[15] asking that others use no pronouns for this person, and wearing androgynous clothing.[16]
    • Profession: Preacher
    • Nonbinary Wiki entry Wikipedia entry

    Eddie Izzard

    Eddie Izzard

    Eddie Izzard is a stand-up comedian, who has won numerous awards, including a Primetime Emmy Award.

    • Born: 7 February 1962 (age 64)
    • Nationality: English
    • Pronouns: he/him
    • Gender: Eddie Izzard identifies primarily as a transvestite but also uses the word transgender and has stated "I am 100% boy, plus extra girl."[17]
    • Profession: Stand up comedian, actor, writer
    • Wikipedia entry

    Elly Jackson

    Elly Jackson of La Roux performing on 11 September 2010
    • Born: 12th March 1988 (age 38)
    • Nationality: English
    • Pronouns: She/her
    • Gender: "I don't feel like I'm female or male."[18]
    • Profession: Singer-songwriter and the lead singer of the electropop duo La Roux.
    • Wikipedia entry

    Jennie June

    Jennie June was a Victorian and Edwardian era writer and activist for the rights of people who didn't conform to gender and sexual norms. She published her first autobiography, The Autobiography of an Androgyne in 1918, and her second The Female-Impersonators in 1922. She also wrote an unpublished third autobiography in 1921, which was discovered in 2010. Her goal in writing her books were to help create an accepting environment for young adults who don't conform to gender and sexual norms, because that was what she would have wanted for herself, and she wanted to prevent youth from committing suicide.[19] June had formed the Cercle Hermaphroditos in 1895, along with other androgynes who frequented Paresis Hall in New York City. The organization was formed in the hopes "to unite for defense against the world's bitter persecution," and to show that it was natural to be gender and sex variant.[20]

    • Born: 1874
    • Nationality: USA
    • Pronouns: she/her (source needed)
    • Gender: androgyne. Jennie June self-identified as a "fairie", "androgyne", "effeminate man", and an "invert", which were contemporary terms for gender and sexual variance. Her transition included changing her full name to Jennie June, and choosing to be castrated, in order to reduce facial hair and sexual desires that disturbed her.
    • Profession: scholar, autobiographer, activist
    • Nonbinary Wiki article Wikipedia entry

    Jinkx Monsoon

    Jinkx Monsoon at the DC Capital Pride street festival in 2013.
    • Born: September 18, 1987 (age 39)
    • Nationality: American
    • Pronouns: They/them, she/her while in drag
    • Gender: genderless. In a Facebook post about transphobia and the drag scene, Monsoon stated "I, myself do not identify as cis-gendered. I am genderless."[21]
    • Profession: Actor, singer and winner of RuPaul's Drag Race season 5
    • Wikipedia entry Official website

    Richard O'Brien

    Richard O'Brien

    Richard O'Brien wrote the musical stage show The Rocky Horror Show in 1973, which became an international success and has remained in continuous production. He also co-wrote the screenplay of the film adaptation The Rocky Horror Picture Show, released in 1975, appearing in the film as Riff Raff.

    • Born: 25 March 1942 (age 84)
    • Nationality: Britain; New Zealand
    • Pronouns: He/his
    • Gender: In a 2009 interview O'Brien spoke about an ongoing struggle to reconcile cultural gender roles and self-described as being transgender or possible third sex. O'Brien stated, "There is a continuum between male and female. Some are hard-wired one way or another, I’m in between."[22] O'Brien expounded on this in a 2013 interview which covered using oestrogen for the previous decade, and identifying as 70% male 30% female.[23]
    • Profession: Writer, actor, television presenter and theatre performer. O'Brien is known for writing the cult musical The Rocky Horror Show and for presenting the popular TV show The Crystal Maze.
    • Nonbinary Wiki entry / Wikipedia entry

    Tom Phelan

    Tom Phelan playing Cole in The Fosters
    • Born: 1997 (Age 29)
    • Nationality: American
    • Pronouns: He/him [citation needed]
    • Gender: nonbinary. Phelan plays a binary-trans teen on TV but identifies as non-binary themself.[24]
    • Profession: Actor; noted for playing transgender teen Cole on ABC's The Fosters
    • Tumblr / IMDB

    Genesis Breyer P-Orridge

    Genesis Breyer P-Orridge

    After marrying Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge in 1993, Genesis and Lady Jaye began "project Pandrogeny" to become Breyer P-Orridge, an entity described as an "amalgam" of their two selves. Genesis Breyer P-Orridge continued this project after the death of Lady Jaye in 2007.

    • Born: 22 February 1950 (age 76)
    • Nationality: British
    • Pronouns: s/he, h/er
    • Profession: singer-songwriter, musician, poet, writer, occultist and performance artist
    • Wikipedia entry h/er own website

    Amy Ray

    Araysolowvolunteers

    Amy Elizabeth Ray is an American singer-songwriter and member of the contemporary folk duo Indigo Girls. She also pursues a solo career and has released six albums under her own name, and founded a record company, Daemon Records.

    Speaking about her own gender identity to thegavoice.com, she said, "I am half and half and whatever you call me is fine,” she says. “I work every day to be comfortable in my body and in rare transcendent moments, I am, but it’s the job of my lifetime to appreciate my physicality and always project what is inside me so I can celebrate this life I’ve been given."

    • Born: April 12, 1964 (age 62)

    Raeen Roes (Angel Haze)

    Angel Haze live at Øyafestivalen 2013

    Raeen Roes, better known by their stage name Angel Haze, is a well known agender rapper, as they announced via twitter. [25] [26]

    Ruby Rose

    File:Ruby Rose, 2012.jpg
    Ruby Rose

    "On 22 July 2014, Rose came out as genderfluid, saying, "I am very gender fluid and feel more like I wake up every day sort of gender neutral.". This announcement came approximately a week after she released a short film called "Break Free," in which she visually transitions from a very feminine woman to a heavily tattooed man."[6]

    • Born: March 20, 1986 (age 40)
    • Nationality: Australian
    • Pronouns: She/Her [7]
    • Profession: Model, actress, musician, and television presenter.

    JD Samson

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    JD Samson

    JD Samson is a musician with the bands Le Tigre and MEN. She identifies as genderqueer and a gender outlaw. "I do mostly go by she and her and I consider myself a woman in most senses of the word. I sometimes consider myself part of the trans community and I don't mind at all when people call me he if that's how they see me.[27]

    Sam Smith

    Sam Smith

    "When asked if he feels like a cisgender man, they replied: ‘No. I mean, I’ve got these tattoos on my fingers.’ They pointed to small tattoos of the gender symbols and smiled: ‘I don’t know what the title would be but I feel just as much woman as I am man.’"[28]

    Rae Spoon

    Error creating thumbnail:
    Rae Spoon.
    • Nationality: Canadian
    • Pronouns: They/their
    • Profession: Singer-songwriter
    • Wikipedia entry

    Amandla Stenberg

    Writing about organising a workshop, Hunger Games actor Amandla Stenberg wrote, "Basically, we’re trying to understand the duality of being a non-binary person and a feminist. How do you claim a movement for women when you don’t always feel like one?"[30][31].

    • Born: October 23, 1998 (age 28)
    • Nationality: American
    • Pronouns: They/them or she/her. In an exchange on Tumblr.com about having conflicted thoughts about preferred pronouns, Stenberg wrote "Damn you right. They/them it is."[32] As of June 2016, Stenberg's Tumblr profile reads "17 / non-binary / she/her or they/them / bisexual".
    • Profession: Actor
    • Personal Tumblr
    • Wikipedia entry

    Kieran Strange

    Kieran identifies as genderqueer and gender-fluid."[33]

    • Born: August 8th
    • Nationality: English & Canadian
    • Pronouns: He/him[34]
    • Profession: Singer, songwriter, actor
    • Personal Website

    Rebecca Sugar

    Rebecca Sugar, the creator of Cartoon Network show Steven Universe has said of its characters: "They wouldn’t think of themselves as women, but they’re fine with being interpreted that way amongst humans. And I am also a non-binary woman which is been really great to express myself through these characters because it’s very much how I have felt throughout my life."[35]

    • Born: July 9, 1987 (age 39)
    • Nationality: American
    • Pronouns: She/her or they/them[36]
    • Profession: Animator, director, screenwriter, producer, songwriter
    • Wikipedia Entry

    Eliot Sumner

    File:Eliot Sumner 2015 two.jpg
    Eliot Sumner performing at the Milkboy Cafe Phila PA in 2015.

    Musician Eliot Sumner, Sting's child. "Asked if she had come out to her friends and family, she [Eliot Sumner] said that she hadn’t because 'no one had ever asked'. 'They knew already,' she added. 'So I didn’t need to. I’ve never come out to anyone. My friends always knew and I always knew'. [...] She said she did not believe in gender “labels” and preferred to dress down, shunning the glamour attached to some singers. Asked whether she identified with a particular gender, she replied 'no', saying she defined herself simply as a 'musician'. 'I don’t believe in any specifications,' she said."[37] (Note that this article uses "she" pronouns for Sumner, but Sumner's pronoun preference hasn't been stated.)[38]

    • Born: July 30, 1990 (age 36)
    • Pronouns: not stated
    • Profession: musician
    • Personal website

    Tilda Swinton

    File:Tilda Swinton Cannes 2013.JPG
    Swinton at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival

    "I don’t know if I could ever really say that I was a girl – I was kind of a boy for a long time. I don’t know, who knows? It changes."[39]

    Pete Townshend

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    Pete Townshend during a book signing in Toronto.

    "I know how it feels to be a woman because I am a woman," Townshend said in an interview with White that ran on White's radio show in September 1989. "And I won't be classified as just a man."[40]

    Steven Tyler

    File:TylerNassauColliseum.jpg
    Steven Tyler

    "I've been misquoted as saying that I'm more female than male. Let me set the record straight -- it's more half and half, and I love the fact that my feelings are akin to puella eternis (Latin for 'the eternal girl')."[41]

    • Born: March 26, 1948 (age 78)
    • Nationality: American
    • Pronouns: He/his (assumed; citation needed)
    • Profession: Musician; frontman of Aerosmith
    • Nonbinary Wiki entry / Wikipedia entry

    Gerard Way

    File:My Chemical Romance @ McCallum Park (5 2 2012) (6825192746).jpg
    Gerard Way

    "I have always identified a fair amount with the female gender..... Masculinity to me has always made me feel like it wasn't right for me.""[42]

    • Born: April 9, 1977 (age 49)
    • Nationality: American
    • Pronouns: he/his or they/their [43]
    • Profession: Musician, former lead singer of My Chemical Romance
    • Wikipedia entry

    See also

    References

    1. ↑ Years & Years: Inspiring - #PlessPlayForPride Spotify, June 7 2016
    2. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2011/jun/28/justin-bond?CMP=twt_gu
    3. ↑ Mark Holgate. "Justin Bond Talks Cher, Joan Didion, and his All-Time Favorite Shoes with Pierre Hardy." Vogue 2011-04-05. http://www.vogue.com/870070/justin-bond-talks-cher-joan-didion-and-his-all-time-favorite-shoes-with-pierre-hardy
    4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 JD Ordonez. "The Singer's Name Is Mx. Justin Vivian Bond, And V Is Trans." Queerty. January 3, 2011. http://www.queerty.com/the-singers-name-is-mx-justin-vivian-bond-and-v-is-trans-20110103
    5. ↑ Mike Albo. "The Official Justin Bond." Out (magazine). April 11, 2011. http://www.out.com/detail.asp?page=2&id=30031
    6. ↑ Czyzselska, Jane (February 2016). "CALL ME Kate". Diva: 54.
    7. ↑ Retrieved November 11, 2019. http://katebornstein.com
    8. ↑ Kate Bornstein. A Queer and Pleasant Danger: A Memoir. Beacon Press. 2012. https://books.google.com/?id=nDA8Hvr1jzkC&dq=kate+Bornstein+biography
    9. ↑ Tom Sykes, "A ‘Gender Fluid’ Journalist Comes Out To Irish Cheers." 2015-09-18. Daily Beast. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/18/a-gender-fluid-journalist-comes-out-to-irish-cheers.html
    10. ↑ Black, Eleanor (August 20, 2016). "Ivan Coyote: 'I always knew I was not the same as other little girls'". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved July 26, 2017. https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/books/83178100/ivan-coyote-i-always-knew-i-was-not-the-same-as-other-little-girls
    11. ↑ Exclusive: Miley Cyrus Launches Anti-Homelessness, Pro-LGBT ‘Happy Hippie Foundation’, out.com, May 5, 2015
    12. ↑ https://twitter.com/chaikovsky
    13. ↑ https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/44167/1/dorian-electra-new-song-video-flamboyant-interview
    14. ↑ Juster & MacFarlane, A Mighty Baptism, pp. 27-28; Brekus, p. 85
    15. ↑ Catherine A. Brekus, Strangers and Pilgrims: Female Preaching in America, 1740-1845 (2000), p. 85
    16. ↑ Peg A. Lamphier, Rosanne Welch, Women in American History (2017), p. 331.
    17. ↑ Eddie Izzard on Atheism, Transgender, and “The Invisible Bloke Upstairs”, Religion Dispatches Magazine, March 7, 2013
    18. ↑ La Roux's Elly Jackson: I Don't Have A Sexuality, starpulse.com, February 9th, 2010
    19. ↑ Meyerowitz, J. "Thinking Sex With An Androgyne". GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 17.1 (2010): 97–105. Web. Retrieved April 13, 2017.
    20. ↑ Katz, Jonathan Ned. "Transgender Memoir of 1921 Found". Humanities and Social Sciences Online. N.p., 10 October 2010. Web. Retrieved April 13, 2017.
    21. ↑ [1],
    22. ↑ Richard O’Brien: ‘Society should not dictate gender’, Pink News, 18th August 2009
    23. ↑ Richard O'Brien: ‘I'm 70% man', BBC News, 18 March 2013
    24. ↑ "TOM PHELAN" in She Wired, 2014-03-02
    25. ↑ "angxl hxze on Twitter", February 14, 2015
    26. ↑ "angxl hxze on Twitter", February 14, 2015
    27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 EQ Interview With MEN - "It's Just Gender - It's Just Whatever"
    28. ↑ Sam Smith on his gender identity: 'I feel just as much woman as I am man', Gay Star News, 22 October 2017.
    29. ↑ https://twitter.com/samsmith/status/1172519872464662530?s=20
    30. ↑ hi folks, @dazedfields and I are organizing a workshop on feminism, amandla.tumblr.com, March 2, 2016
    31. ↑ Hunger Games actress says she 'doesn't feel like a woman all the time', Gay Star News, March 4, 2016
    32. ↑ muavve: WHAT ARE YOUR PREFERRED PRONOUNS THIS IS IMPORTANT, amandla.tumblr.com, April 20, 2016
    33. ↑ "Tear Down The Wall" music video released, watchtheswitch.tumblr.com, June 17, 2014
    34. ↑ [2], August 12, 2016
    35. ↑ https://io9.gizmodo.com/steven-universes-rebecca-sugar-on-how-she-expresses-her-1827624015?IR=T
    36. ↑ https://twitter.com/rebeccasugar?lang=en
    37. ↑ Craig McLean, John Dunne."I don't believe in 'gender labels,' says Sting's daughter Eliot Sumner." December 2, 2015. Evening Standard (magazine). http://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/celebrity-news/i-dont-believe-in-gender-labels-says-stings-daughter-eliot-sumner-a3127961.html
    38. ↑ Curtis M. Wong. "Sting's Child Eliot Sumner: I Don't Identify With Either Gender." December 2, 2015. HuffPost. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/eliot-sumner-non-gender_565f50d1e4b079b2818cf268?ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000054
    39. ↑ Interview with Actress Tilda Swinton: “I am probably a woman”, thewip.net, March 20, 2009
    40. ↑ Interview with Pete Townshend: “Pete Townshend Says He Is Bisexual”, orlandosentinel.com, November 8, 1990
    41. ↑ "Hollywood Stars: Steven Tyler says he’s both man and woman?" in examiner.com, May 17, 2011
    42. ↑ "I am Gerard Way, musician, artist, creator, and cousin of Joe Rogan- Ask me anything!", October 1, 2014
    43. ↑ "Gerard Way on Twitter", June 9, 2015
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