Random Celebrities Who Have Defied Gender Stereotypes (23 items)

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  (#1) Sam Smith

  • 1992-05-19

  Sam Smith took to Twitter on September 13, 2019, to reveal they would be changing their pronouns to "they/them."

  Smith wrote: "Today is a good day so here goes. I've decided I am changing my pronouns to THEY/THEM. After a lifetime of being at war with my gender, I've decided to embrace myself for who I am, inside and out..." 
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  (#2) Angel Haze

  • 1991-07-10

  Rapper and occasional model Roes (previously known as Angel Haze) identifies as pansexual and told BuzzFeed in March 2015, "To be honest with you, I'm not really a girl... If anything I'm more on the guy end of the spectrum."

  In 2015, she also told the Evening Standard, "I sound like four people when I get written about as 'they.' It drives me crazy. If you call me 'him' or 'her' it doesn’t matter to me. I don’t consider myself of any sex. I consider myself an experience."
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  (#3) Alok Vaid-Menon

  Alok Vaid-Menon, who goes by ALOK, is a writer, performance artist, community organizer, and Stanford graduate. They are the author of Femme in Public and Beyond the Gender Binary.

  "I want every person questioning their gender out there to know that you are enough," Vaid-Menon says. "There is no one way to be a boy, a girl, or even transgender - there are as many genders as there are people on this planet."
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  (#4) Lena Waithe

  • 1984-05-17

  Emmy-winning screenwriter and actor Lena Waithe opened up about her fashion choices on NPR's Fresh Air. Waithe is known for her gender fluid manner of dressing and stated during the interview she usually shops in the men's department, going on to say: 

  I try to sort of make the male clothes fit my aesthetic. And I think I can kind of make clothes that are made for men almost appear as if they were made to be worn by a woman.
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  (#5) Ruby Rose

  • 1986-03-20

  Australian model and actor Ruby Rose Langenheim, who most recently starred on CW's Batwoman, talked about her gender fluidity in an interview with Elle in 2015. She said, "For the most part, I definitely don't identify as any gender. I'm not a guy; I don't really feel like a woman, but obviously I was born one. So, I'm somewhere in the middle, which – in my perfect imagination – is like having the best of both sexes."

  In the interview, she praised Caitlyn Jenner for her public transition, along with the shows and media outlets that give a voice and a humanity to people who don't identify as gender normative.
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  (#6) Miley Cyrus

  • 1992-11-23

  In an interview with Paper Magazine in 2015, Miley Cyrus said, "I don't relate to being a boy or a girl, and I don't have to have my partner relate to being a boy or a girl."

  Though she still seems comfortable with she/her pronouns, Cyrus has been experimenting with gender ambiguous presentation for awhile now. She made headlines back in 2015 when she appeared at an amFAR event with agender model and poet Tyler Ford as her date and used the event as an opportunity to raise awareness about non-binary gender identities. In 2019, Vanity Fair reported Cyrus explaining: "What I preach is: People fall in love with people, not gender, not looks, not whatever. What I’m in love with exists on almost a spiritual level. It has nothing to do with sexuality. Relationships and partnerships in a new generation—I don’t think they have so much to do with sexuality or gender. Sex is actually a small part, and gender is a very small, almost irrelevant part of relationships.”
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  (#7) JD Samson

  • 1978-08-04

  A member of the lesbian synthpop groups Le Tigre and MEN, JD Samson was assigned female at birth and prefers female pronouns.

  Samson spoke about her identity with Archer magazine in 2016:

  I think my identity, or the words that I choose, vary a bit – but I would identify as a woman, as a lesbian and as a queer person, and also as genderqueer. Sometimes that word doesn’t feel exactly perfect to me; it’s the one that comes out of my mouth most often when describing my non-binary gender expressions.
• 

  (#8) Eddie Izzard

  • 1962-02-07

  Comedian Eddie Izzard, who describes himself as a "transvestite" rather than transgender, often takes pains to distinguish between his feminine gender presentation and his sexuality, reminding audiences they should never assume, because a "man" is wearing lipstick, that that he's cisgendered and/or gay. Izzard uses male pronouns, and says he identifies as "a straight transvestite or male lesbian."

  On one occasion, he joked that he is "a complete boy plus half a girl."
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  (#9) Børns

  Singer/songwriter Børns is known for his genderfluid style on stage, to the point fans initially weren't sure of his gender at all while he was performing. Regarding his androgynous style, he stated in 2016: 

  Well, what's interesting is when I was first putting out the music, people weren't sure if I was a guy or a girl. I wasn't on the cover or anything, but people really liked the music. I thought that was such a great thing—people were enjoying the music for what it is and not judging it based on your gender or whatever.
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  (#10) Kate Bornstein

  • 1948-03-15

  Assigned male at birth, Kate Bornstein spent almost 40 years living as a man before discovering her true gender identity and physically transitioning in 1986. She's an author, performer, playwright, artist, and advocate for LGBTQ+ rights currently living in New York.

  Though she prefers female pronouns, Bornstein said in her autobiography, A Queer and Pleasant Danger, "I don't call myself a woman, and I know I'm not a man." Her books Gender Outlaw and My Gender Workbook both define gender as a spectrum and explore the absurdities of traditional gender roles in society.
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  (#11) Genesis P-Orridge

  • 1950-02-22

  Genesis P-Orridge has since passed away in March 2020.
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  (#12) Amber Liu

  • 1992-09-18

  K-pop star Amber Liu is known for her tomboy clothing. The singer, who sports short and boyish hair, usually wears shorts, t-shirts, and sneakers on stage. Part of the reason for Liu's style is practical. She grew up playing sports and needed looser clothing for mobility reasons. However, she also says she dresses the way she does to be unique and send her female fans the message they can dress however they want. 
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  (#13) Steven Tyler

  • 1948-03-26

  Many have noted the head Aerosmith singer's androgynous appearance, but it turns out it goes beyond style alone. Per Steven Tyler's memoir, Does the Noise in My Head Bother You, "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."
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  (#14) Andrej Pejić

  • 1991-08-28

  Pejic started out in fashion as an "androgynous" male model known for modeling both men's and women's fashion by high profile designers like Marc Jacobs and Jean Paul Gaultier. Pejic has described herself as "living in-between genders," and feeling comfortable with either male or female pronouns.

  Pejic completed a surgical transition in 2014 and henceforth prefers to be referred to using exclusively female pronouns.
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  (#15) Tilda Swinton

  • 1960-11-05

  Swinton's public presentation is decidedly androgynous. She also gravitates toward non-binary characters, e.g. her roles in Orlando and Constantine.

  In interviews, Swinton has stated in 2009, "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." She concedes, however, as an adult, "I am probably a woman."
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  (#16) Justin Bond

  • 1963-05-09

  A fixture of New York avant garde cabaret for over two decads, singer Justin Vivian Bond is a musician, drag queen, occasional actor, and performance artist. Bond appeared in Imaginary Heroes and John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus, and in 2007, was nominated for a Tony Award.

  Bond does not identify as strictly male or female, preferring the prefix "Mx." instead of Ms./Mr., and the pronoun "v," instead of he/she/they.
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  (#17) Elly Jackson

  • 1988-03-12

  With a penchant for upswept hairstyles and big-shouldered suit jackets, Elly Jackson is one half of British electropop duo La Roux.

  In an interview, Jackson stated, "I don't feel like I'm female or male," and expressed irritation with people trying to pigeonhole her sexuality and gender. In 2020, she told The Independent she doesn’t care how people describe her gender identity. “I couldn’t give a f*** if somebody mistakes my gender because I’m not that petty. I don’t care if somebody calls me giraffe, sir, madam, boy, child, binary, non-binary. I couldn’t give a f***. I’m not gonna get offended, because I know what I am. And I feel like that’s the place that we need to work to. Not this place of, ‘I can only be OK with myself if a stranger labels me correctly.’”
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  (#18) Tom Phelan

  Actor Tom Phelan's breakout role was in 2015 on ABC Family's The Fosters, a series about kids grappling with the aggravating realities of the foster care system. Phelan’s character on the series was trans and upset when authorities place him in a foster home intended for girls. "Cole is misgendered a lot throughout the show. He's in this girl's home where he doesn't belong, and that comes along with a lot of 'she' pronouns," he said of his character in 2014.

  In real life, Phelan originally came out as lesbian at age 14 and then was a non-binary lesbian, he said on Broadly Hotline in 2018, describing his identity journey. But now he identifies as non-binary and prefers the singular pronoun "they." 
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  (#19) Richard O'Brien

  • 1942-03-25

  Best known as the writer, lyricist, and composer behind the beloved midnight movie classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show, in which a 1950s version of Earth is invaded by sexually aggressive, lingerie-wearing transsexuals, Richard O'Brien is responsible for a rich body of work that irreverently deconstructs gender roles, gender identity, and sexual orientation.

  O'Brien often dresses in women's clothes and jewelry and believes that gender is a continuum: "Some are hard-wired one way or another, I'm in-between." He identifies himself as "70% male, 30% female."
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  (#20) Rae Spoon

  • 1982-01-01

  Canadian author and singer-songwriter Rae Spoon lived for several years as a transgender man before going public with a campaign to promote the singular pronoun "they" alongside cartoonist Elisha Lim. Spoon collaborated with author Ivan Coyote on the short story collection Gender Failure, and Spoon's latest album is Mental Health.

  In an interview with Now Magazine, Spoon said, "I think the 'they' pronoun is a pretty cool thing. It's letting a lot of people not have to identify as a man or a woman. Whatever it means to them."

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