“There’s a Movement”: Inside the Fight to De-gender Awards Shows

Bella Ramsey’s decision to submit as an actress at this year’s Emmys was not an easy one. The Last of Us breakout, who identifies as nonbinary and now uses they/them pronouns, was “uncomfortable” at the idea of fitting into either lead-acting race. “The categories at the moment feel extremely gendered with the language around them,” Ramsey says. After Yellowjackets’ nonbinary star Liv Hewson announced on April 26 they would withdraw from the Emmys race altogether, Ramsey considered doing the same. They spoke with Last of Us creator Craig Mazin about potential alternatives, and their options. Ultimately, Ramsey decided to contend as an actress, even though they don’t take on that label.

“I don’t want the limitations in terms of the language in the categories to be a reason that nonbinary actors like me can’t be celebrated,” Ramsey tells me. “And it can open up a conversation about how it feels—as long as I’m aware of the fact that it’s not ideal, but also that finding alternatives is really complex.”

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Complex, indeed. The debate around the future of gendered acting accolades has accelerated over the past few months, just as the amount of nonbinary performers finding success across TV, film, and stage has exploded. Hewson and others have sparked headlines for opting not to contend for industry prizes. Major names like Emma Corrin have called for an end to gender designations. Smaller awards bodies like the Film Independent Spirit Awards have heeded that call, dropping “actor” and “actress” names in favor of neutral “performance” categories (and losing two categories in the process, while adding others). “It does feel like there’s a movement,” says Film Independent president Josh Welsh. “Why would you force someone to identify in a way that they’re not comfortable with, in order to receive an accolade from you? It’s just fundamentally rude to that person, and there’s not a compelling argument on the other side why anyone should keep it.”

For major awards like the Emmys, Tonys, and Oscars, however, decades-old actor and actress divisions remain firmly in place. When writer Frank E. Woods, a founding member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, first devised the list of Oscar categories in the 1920s, it included one unspecified actor field. He apparently changed his mind. “All the categories were non-gendered—you didn’t have awards for women editors and men editors, you hashed them together—but he thought that there might be a reason to treat the acting awards differently,” says Bruce Davis, who spent 20 years as the Academy’s executive director. “This was never really a big debate.” Decades later, the first time they honored actors, the Emmys and Tonys followed suit. That conventional wisdom had never been meaningfully challenged—until now.

Public attitudes around and understandings of gender identity have rapidly evolved over the past decade. With that, a number of prominent voices have called for structural change in the way performance awards are classified. Asia Kate Dillon was the first nonbinary performer to play a series-regular nonbinary role on a prime-time show, in Showtime’s Billions; in 2017, they decided to submit as a supporting actor at the Emmys, citing the term as more inclusive of “all people,” dating back to the word’s 16th-century origins. Dillon has since called for the end of gendered acting categories. “I now recognize that being submitted or nominated within categories that reinforce the gender binary should have been met with my outright rejection,” Dillon tells me. “I’ve seen the conversation around the abolishment of gendered acting awards evolve from being something I felt I was advocating for in a vacuum to something that feels much more buoyed and amplified by many other voices, which is exciting!”

In 2021, The Crown’s Corrin and Hacks’ Carl Clemons-Hopkins became the first nonbinary performers to receive Emmy nominations. Last fall, Corrin and Janelle Monáe campaigned for Oscars as actresses while proudly discussing their nonbinary gender identities. This year, we’ve reached another turning point, with a number of performers simply saying no.

“As a theater kid, all you ever dream about is being potentially nominated for Tony—even being in a position where I could be eligible was mind-blowing to me,” says Justin David Sullivan, the trans nonbinary star of the Broadway musical & Juliet, who withdrew from Tony consideration this year. “It was heartbreaking to have to make that decision, but I really stand by it.” Sullivan received strong reviews for their performance as May, a nonbinary character, and judging by the production’s haul of nine Tony nominations, would have been a serious contender to be recognized for their Broadway debut. “I’m not changing myself to conform or fit into anyone else’s rules,” Sullivan says.

Sullivan doesn’t begrudge any nonbinary performer, like Ramsey or first-time Tony nominees Alex Newell (Shucked) and J. Harrison Ghee (Some Like It Hot), for still contending: “My experience is not the same as anyone else’s, and that is the beauty about being nonbinary.” Hewson agrees, telling me this is a matter of choice within a system that is not built for them: “I don’t have any judgment about that…but for myself, I just couldn’t do it anymore.” A strategist who’s worked on campaigns involving nonbinary talent notes that “no pun intended, it’s a very fluid conversation with people,” in terms of where—and whether—to submit.   

Hewson came out as nonbinary over a decade ago to those close to them, at 16, but entered the industry afraid of how their identity might impact their career: “For a number of years, it was very painful and very lonely.” Now that they are out? “I’m not going to stand around and try to justify my own existence. I’m not going to seek validation or approval or legitimacy because I don’t need to. Those are things I have on my own.” 

Hewson continues, on the decision not to submit for the Emmys this year: “It’s fairly intuitive and self-explanatory on my end. I’m nonbinary. There’s a category for men and a category for women. So it’s not going to work.”

The big question, when it comes to the Oscars, Emmys, and Tonys, is whether things will actually change. The organizations behind all three awards shows declined to participate in this story, beyond previous public statements. The Film Academy is said to be researching the matter while allowing nominees to request gender-netural wording on their awards; the Tonys more seriously considering imminent gender-neutral adjustments; and the Television Academy emphasizing the new option to adjust the language on an Emmy trophy or nomination certificate, from actor or actress to performer. The TV Academy also says there is no gender requirement for eligibility. “If there is truly no gender requirement for the actor [or] actress categories, then the categories are, by their own admission, arbitrary at best,” Dillon says. “At worst they are exclusionary and discriminatory.” When pointed to this counterpoint, the Television Academy declined further comment. 

The Screen Actors Guild Awards, meanwhile, still have even more determinist categories; the show employs “male actor” and “female actor” descriptors, rather than “actor” or “actress,” for movie and TV accolades. “I met with the SAG committee about three years ago and they flat out told me they would not change their categories, and true to their word they still haven’t,” Dillon says. Sources say SAG-AFTRA is beginning to look at the issue more seriously, but the organization declined to speak for this story. 

So why is it so hard for these organizations to even suggest change is coming? At the Oscars, which are continually in search of better TV ratings, the prospect of losing half the categories is distinctly unappealing. “It has always been the case that the four acting [Oscars] are enormously more important to the public than any of the others,” says Davis, who researched the Academy’s history for his 2022 book, The Academy and the Award. “Eliminating two of the acting awards doesn’t sound like a movement in that direction.” Welsh, whose Spirit Awards instituted genderless acting races for the 2023 awards last year, concurs: “Award shows generally don’t want to lose acting categories. People are most excited about actors.” Sources say the Oscars are heavily focused on continuing last year’s momentum of getting “back on track,” after rebounding ratings and escaping controversy, and that looking at acting categories is “not a priority.” Says the strategist, “There are things that they care about more and this does not seem to be one of them.” 

There are solutions, however, for eliminating rigid categories without losing opportunities to watch actors give acceptance speeches. “We can do literally anything,” Hewson says, suggesting the addition of ensemble or breakout prizes. “Imagine alternative possibilities.” The Spirits, in fact, added a breakthrough-performance category last year, won by Stephanie Hsu, to compensate for the halving of typical film performance presentations. The Los Angeles Film Critics Association opted to still award two actors in lead and supporting races apiece, just without gendered nominations or requirements for the winners. But insiders say these moves were not met with enthusiastic industry response. “It felt very lackluster,” says the strategist. “There was something about it that just didn’t hit in the same way.” (Welsh, for his part, considers the Spirits’ first go-round a success: “The work that was being celebrated, which had nothing to do with gender, was just beautiful acting.” )

The continued imbalance in Hollywood’s treatment toward men and women—the latter group consistently given less rich roles overall in movies and series—has been another point of contention. Should the Oscars or Emmys remove a specific acting race for women, there is a justified fear that men will dominate ballots. Though the Spirits’ acting lineup last year was majority-women—as was that of the indie-focused Gotham Awards, which implemented a similar change in 2021—Welsh concedes that other groups, with larger and/or less diverse voting bodies, may not yield the same spread: “In those organizations, you could end up with pretty disastrous results, where it is all men being nominated.” 

Others see this as an issue too, but caution it may not be a significant factor for the Academy. Davis points out the Academy’s board of governors rarely, if ever, adjusts categories for social or cultural reasons: “I don't know that there’s much of that bowing to public opinion that affects the decisions made.” And the nonbinary performers interviewed for this story unanimously pointed to the far worse climate in Hollywood for queer talent. “Abolishing gendered acting categories is the path, ultimately, toward the funneling of money which backs projects with larger roles for nonbinary and nonbinary trans performers,” Dillon says, “thereby increasing the probability of recognition at an awards show.”

The pressure is mounting for some kind of response. “Most [Academy] governors will feel an obligation to have the organization give up a sensible answer to this,” Davis says. Welsh adds that awards shows can’t compensate for greater industry problems: “I don’t think awards shows are the issue. The issue is films are being greenlighted and financed and distributed far more with male directors and male-heavy casts—and that’s where the change needs to happen.”

Sullivan hasn’t given an interview since The New York Times first broke the news of their Tonys submission withdrawal in February. They felt overwhelmed by the attention. “It felt like a very personal decision, and I was not expecting it to become a headline,” says Sullivan. “That was a very scary and vulnerable time for me. I had never experienced anything like that.” 

The hope, as this conversation hits decision-makers where they’re at, is that nonbinary voices are included—that their perspective matters. “For [nonbinary and nonconforming people] to have a say and be part of those discussions and those conversations, that’s really important,” Ramsey says. “I just hope there’s more space for nonbinary people to be recognized within [future] categories.”

In that sense, there is also a feeling of inevitability around this topic—the future of awards shows for a changing world. What seems to unite folks like Hewson, Ramsey, Dillon, and Sullivan—even as their experiences of gender differ, even as they choose different routes for this coming awards season—is the feeling that they are not alone. Openly queer people are on major screens and stages as never before—see Hewson’s Yellowjackets cast for one thing—and this is certainly not a trend that’s going to reverse. 

“We’re here, we are present, and we are not going anywhere,” Sullivan says. “I think it’s just time. It’s been time.”