We’re celebrating and highlighting the celebrities who reside all across the LGBQIA+ spectrum this Pride Month. While gay, lesbian, and trans celebrities are sometimes spotlighted by various entities during this time, those that fall outside of strict gender boxes are sometimes missed, disregarded, or just unrecognized.

In recent times, great strides have been made in the popularity and respect of nonbinary individuals. Nonbinary identity, also sometimes called genderqueer or gender-nonconforming, signifies that the person doesn’t view themselves as exclusively male or female. Some people feel that they embody neither, while others feel that they embody each.

In accordance with NBC, a recent survey found that about 5% of America’s young adult population (ages 18 – 30), now discover as a gender that differs from the sex they were assigned at birth – either transgender or nonbinary. 1.6% of the general population (including those outside of the 18-30 age group) falls under this umbrella.

With the popularity of the term nonbinary and the concept of gender nonconformity rising in the general public consciousness lately, a few of our favourite stars of the large and small screen and the music industry have come forward to disclose that they too fall on this only recently accepted end of the spectrum.

Whether or not they have openly and definitively identified as nonbinary, or they buck the concept of gender identity altogether, these artists are redefining societal norms just by unapologetically being themselves.

Take a have a look at the celebrities living life outside of gender confines below.

01

Janelle Monáe

“I live outside of the binary. I feel my masculinity, my femininity, and all the things in between,” the singer, songwriter, and actor told ESSENCE in a September 2021 interview, before formally confirming their nonbinary identity on an April 2022 episode of Red Table Talk. “Quite a lot of who I’m is centered around not letting anyone define me.” Monáe has gone on record saying that they go by each they/them and she or he/her pronouns, but can even happily answer to “free-ass motherf****r.”

02

Kehlani

2021 was an enormous 12 months for Kehlani in affirming her LGBTQIA+ identity. Early within the 12 months, they revealed that they’re a lesbian. But in a December 2021 interview with Byrdie Magazine, the Blue Water Road singer revealed that they don’t occupy a strict space in traditionally female identity. While they’re tremendous using she/her pronouns, say they feel really “seen” when others check with them by they/them pronouns. “Something feels really affirming when people say ‘they,’” Kehlani shared.

03

Indya Moore

The POSE star is each trans femme and nonbinary identifying. Though they find she/her pronouns to be acceptable in some situations, they famously began a “gender jar” at their management agency CAA, charging reps at the corporate for every time they were misgendered. “I assumed it might be a fantastic strategy to hold people accountable,” they told The Hollywood Reporter in 2019. “The more you misgender people, the more you have got to spend.” The cash was slated to be donated to organizations that profit Black trans and gender-nonconforming people.

04

Syd

For Syd, gender roles and expression are a complete afterthought. Notably not a conformist to traditional “female” gender expression, she went on record early in her profession noting that she didn’t necessarily like being classified as a lesbian. “If you happen to think I’m a young boy singing these songs, dope. Run with that,” she told the Latest York Times in 2016.

05

Young M.A.

As an alternative of constructing stipulations and distinctions on labels, this masculine-presenting NY-based rapper prefers to buck them altogether. While speaking in a 2019Hollywood Unlocked Uncensored interview, the rapper expressed a disinterest in being placed right into a box either together with her gender or her sexuality. “As a child, I all the time desired to do things in a different way than what society teaches us – I still don’t wish to put a label on it like girl/boy, because we don’t know if a lady is presupposed to be this or a boy is presupposed to be that. Like, who says this?” Despite only having an interest in dating women, the rapper won’t even define herself as a lesbian. “I’m just Young M.A.” she stressed.

06

Big Freedia

The Queen of Bounce is unapologetically himself, (or herself, depending on the day). Freedia uses she/her and he/him pronouns interchangeably and confidently bends gender in whatever direction she pleases. As she wrote in The Root in 2020, I’m gender non-conforming, fluid, nonbinary. If I had known the “queen” in Queen Diva would cause a lot confusion, I may need called myself the king!”

07

Amandla Stenberg

The actor opened up about their gender identity on Tumblr back in 2016, then only 17 years old. While speaking with People in 2017, they made it known that they see little use for gender identity because it is expressed in modern society. “I don’t necessarily all the time prescribe to female pronouns simply because I don’t think that pronouns are necessarily very meaningful.”

08

Princess Nokia

The Latest York-bred hip-hop phenom made waves together with her breakout single “Tomboy” in 2017 and a more masculine-presenting style. But Princess Nokia has swung her style pendulum toward the sultry and traditionally feminine lately. “I’m a gender non-conforming androgynous person,” she told Playboy in 2019. “Day-after-day I feel different. Day-after-day it’s either masc or femme or in between.”

09

Shea Couleé

The Drag Race star revealed their nonbinary identity in THEM magazine in 2019, stating that performing in drag helped them discover who they really are. “It was through drag that I actually began to grasp that I even have feelings that don’t necessarily lean toward what is taken into account stereotypically male, but I even have feelings which are very much what some would consider to be masculine.”

10

Angel Haze

The rapper, singer, and painter explained that she considers herself agender, identifying with neither male nor female identity. “I don’t allow gender to guide or manipulate anything that I’m concerned about,” she told CBS Philadelphia in 2015. But she’s not one to get hung up on pronouns. “I don’t care what people call me. In the event that they wanted to make use of the word ‘he’ the complete article I can be comfortable with that.”