Queer Eye star Jonathan Van Ness has said he identifies as nonbinary and “gender nonconforming”.
In a new interview with Out magazine, Jonathan described the gender binary as a “social construct” that, as he’s grown older, he doesn’t feel he fits into.
The 32-year-old explained: “It’s really cool! The older I get, the more I think that I’m nonbinary — I’m gender nonconforming. 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.
“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 and they can like be… is really important and exciting.”
Jonathan continued: “I just am either like gender-bendy or nonconform-y or nonbinary and somedays I feel like a boy and somedays I feel like a girl.
“I didn’t think I was allowed to be nonconforming or genderqueer or nonbinary — I was just always like ‘a gay man’ because that’s just the label I thought I had to be.”
During the interview, it was also specified that Jonathan prefers he/him pronouns, even though he “does not identify as a man”.
Jonathan rose to fame last year as one of the new Fab Five in Netflix’s revival of the hit lifestyle show, in which he appears as its resident grooming expert.
The third series of Queer Eye debuted earlier this year, while a special episode filmed in Japan is coming later in 2019.