Alex Newell and J. Harrison Ghee became the first openly non-binary performers to win Tony Awards Sunday night.
Newell, 30, won earlier in the evening in the featured actor in a musical category for their role as Lulu in “Shucked,” a Broadway original musical centered around corn. The actor first reached notoriety for their breakout role as Unique in “Glee.”
Harrison Ghee, 33, won in the category of lead actor in a musical for their performance as Jerry/Daphne in “Some Like it Hot,” which is based on Billy Wilder’s 1959 romantic comedy featuring Marilyn Monroe.
Both actors took their opportunities onstage to address gender-nonconforming viewers.
“Thank you for seeing me Broadway,” Newell said onstage at the United Palace in New York City’s Washington Heights. “I should not be up here as a queer, nonbinary fat black little baby from Massachusetts,” they continued.
“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.”
Harrison Ghee gave a similarly inspiring acceptance speech.
“My mother raised me to understand that my gifts that God gave me were not about me,” they said. “To use them to be effective in the world. To help someone else’s journey.
“So thank you for teaching me how to live, how to love, how to give,” they said. “To every trans, gender-nonconforming human who ever was told you couldn’t be, you couldn’t be seen, this is for you.”
Broadway performer Justin David Sullivan withdrew from Tony Award consideration earlier this year because of the lack of non-gendered nomination categories.
Sullivan plays the role of May in “& Juliet.”
In an interview with MSNBC, Ghee and Newell addressed why they chose to submit their nominations in the actor categories.
“When I chose my category, I literally just went to what the word meant,” Newell said on the network. “You don’t say I’m going to see my doctoress. You don’t say I’m getting a plumberess. You say I’m a plumber, I’m a doctor.
“And I said I’m an actor and so that’s what I chose for that.”
Harrison Ghee echoed Newell’s remarks.
“One of the things that’s helped me in making the decision for myself is the understanding that I will always show up in the fullness of who I am no matter where somebody else compartmentalizes me.
“We put labels and limits on people to make sense of them for ourselves,” they continued. “I can show up in my fullness and I don’t expect other people to get that all the time.”
