“Queer Eye” star Jonathan Van Ness has come out as non-binary and gender non-conforming.
In an interview with Out, the grooming and skincare expert opened up about his gender identity.
“The older I get, the more I think that I’m non-binary,” Van Ness, who uses male pronouns, says. “I’m gender non-conforming. Like, some days I feel like a man, but then other days I feel like a woman. I don’t really — I think my energies are really all over the place. Any opportunity I have to break down stereotypes of the binary, I am down for it, I’m here for it.”
Van Ness reveals that although he just recently discovered a label for his identity, it’s been a part of who he is since he was a child.
“Growing up, I definitely put on every nail polish, every heel, every scarf,” Van Ness says. As a result, he dealt with “really femme-shamey, gender-shamey [comments]” and learned to avoid it by doing it “before the sun came up or after the sun came down, like, in the basement and it needed to be something I couldn’t wear to school — like when I would do it, it had to be behind closed doors.”
Now, Van Ness is ready to break down gender stereotypes.
“I think that a lot of times gender is used to separate and divide. It’s this social construct that I don’t really feel like I fit into the way I used to. I always used to think, ‘Oh, I’m like a gay man,’ but I think any way I can let little boys and little girls know that they can express themselves … no matter how they present is really important and exciting,” Van Ness says.
