I Love A Success Story - Jonathan Van Ness

Jonathan Van Ness says he’s non-binary

 

Jonathan Van Ness

By: Eileen Reslen June 11, 2019

Jonathan Van Ness is opening up about his gender identity, revealing he does not consider himself a “gay man,” but rather non-binary.

“The older I get, the more I think that I’m non-binary — I’m gender non-conforming,” the “Queer Eye” star, who said he prefers the pronouns he/him, told Out magazine. “Like, some days I feel like a man, but then other days I feel like a woman.”

He continued, “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.”

According to the National Center for Transgender Equality, non-binary and terms including genderqueer, agender and bigender “speak to an experience of gender that is not simply male or female.”

Van Ness, 32, said he thinks gender is often 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,” he said. “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 and they can like be — like, making iconic partnerships with brands like [nail polish brand] Essie no matter [how] they present is really important and exciting.”

The Netflix star also shared that he used to define himself as a gay man because “that’s just the label I thought I had to be.”

Since his rise to stardom, Van Ness has shown his gender-bending sense of style on red carpets and TV shows, like during his appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” when he wore a sheer shirt and high heels.

“I’ve been wearing heels and wearing makeup and wearing skirts and stuff for a minute, honey,” he told Out. “I just, like, didn’t know that that meant — that I had a title.”