Last night, the Tony Awards finally took heed of the diverse talent on Broadway, awarding non-binary performers for the first time in the awards’ history. J. Harrison Ghee, who won the award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for Some Like It Hot, and Alex Newell, who won the award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Shucked, both identify as non-binary; Newell uses he/she/they pronouns, while Ghee uses they/them.
Newell and Ghee are the first two openly non-binary people that the Tonys have awarded for acting; last year, Six composer and writer Toby Marlow became the first non-binary Tony winner. Newell and Ghee each addressed the monumental achievement in their respective acceptance speeches.
“Thank you for seeing me, Broadway. I should not be up here as a queer, nonbinary, fat, Black little baby from Massachusetts,” Newell, who accepted their award first, shared. “And to anyone that thinks that they can’t do it, I’m going to look you dead in your face that you can do anything you put your mind to.” They were met with an ovation.
In Ghee’s speech, they specifically highlighted their mother and the lessons she instilled in Ghee growing up that still guide them today.
“My mother raised me to understand that my gifts that God gave me were not about me. To use them to be effective in the world, to help somebody else’s journey,” Ghee said. “So thank you for teaching me how to live, how to love, how to give. For every trans, non-binary, gender nonconforming human who ever was told you couldn’t be, you couldn’t be seen, this is for you.”
Despite last night’s progress, the Tony Awards still haven’t taken it a step further in the way that the Film Independent Spirit Awards, the Gotham Awards, and more have by digressing from gendered categories altogether. Both Ghee and Newell ran in actor-specific categories (although Newell has previously opined: “Acting is my craft. I am an actor… Actor is a genderless word.”)
The Emmys have also not made that transition. Prominent television actors like Yellowjackets’ Liv Hewson have eschewed campaigning for a nomination given the lack of a category they can confidently align with; Hewson shared in April, “I can’t submit myself for this because there’s no space for me.” As Ghee and Newell made clear last night, the queer talent that propels the entertainment industry is undeniable, and creating proper space to laud it should be a priority.
