I'll try to ask this question as gracefully as I can.

[Staph]

I'm a cisgender female, nearly 70, who tries to keep myself informed by asking questions when I just don't know.

Sunday night, at the Tony Awards, there were two non-binary performers who won Tony Awards, J. Harrison Ghee for Lead Actor in a Musical and Alex Newell as Featured Actor in a Musical. How do they choose which category that they compete in? Ghee portrayed Jerry/Daphne (the Jack Lemmon role) in Some Like It Hot, and Newell played a character named Lulu in Shucked.

I'd hate to think that the categories (actor vs. actress) are chosen based on birth gender - that seems so Floridian. Does anyone know how this works?

Thanks in advance!

[LostOne4Ever]

1. The non-binary performers/actors choose the award for which they want to compete

https://www.myhighplains.com/entertainment-news/first-non-binary-actors-win-tony-awards/amp/

Like other award shows, the Tonys uses gendered categories for best actor and best actress awards, so nominees who identify as nonbinary must choose in which category they want to be nominated.

https://www.npr.org/2023/06/01/1178027738/tony-awards-gendered-non-binary-broadway

Newell, who is a self-described nonbinary, non-gender-conforming actor, is nominated for best featured actor in a musical, the category in which they chose to be recognized. Why actor and not actress? "The word itself is not gendered," they said. "That is my profession. That is my vocation. I am an actor."

[Staph]

2. Thanks, LostOne!