Nonbinary actor Ser Anzoategui is calling for the creation of nonbinary awards categories timed to the presentation of Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards.
In a column for entertainment news site Deadline, Anzoategui — who portrays Eddy on Vida — details their “challenging experience” when it comes to submitting themselves for consideration at awards ceremonies recognizing excellence in TV and film. “As my brain hovers over the options, I watch myself from outside my own body in a weird, uncomfortable to say the least, scene-like moment filled with angst,” Anzoategui writes.
The 41-year-old actor says they eventually came to the conclusion that nonbinary performers need to be honored for special recognition. While Anzoategui initially felt that changing the categories didn’t matter because the performance was more important than the person behind it, they changed their mind when they remembered the accolades that cis men like Jared Leto and Jeffrey Tambor have won for playing trans women, which includes Golden Globe, Emmy, and Screen Actors Guild awards.
The reason why Leto and Tambor were singled out for such recognition, Anzoategui argues, is because of the emphasis placed on the “transformation” involved in playing transgender women. “Their award wins for playing trans women were due to their gender presentation,” Anzoategui argues.
As long as leading awards bodies privilege a certain type of gender presentation over others, the actor goes onto claim that non-binary performers — such as Theo Germaine and Asia Kate Dillon, whose boundary-pushing work on Work in Progress and Billions have largely gone overlooked — don’t stand a chance. “How would a non-binary actor have equal chance in the lead actor or actress category?” Anzoategui asks. “How can they compete with what’s perceived as the norm?”
The lack of a discrete category for non-binary performers further complicates the issue for awards voters, who Anzoategui claims may not “take the time to educate themselves on the nuances and complexities of the gender of non-binary/trans people if the governing bodies of these award shows don’t make it a priority.”
“Without a lesson in non-binary identity, the viewer often insists as seeing a non-binary actor/actress as the gender their own bias allows rather than the true gender of the non-binary/trans person,” Anzoategui concluded. They also pointed out the hypocrisy of being allowed to change legal genders in most states, yet awards categories in supposedly progressive Hollywood remain stagnant.
The column ended on a semi-positive note, though, with Anzoategui singing the praises of non-binary people both within Hollywood and in society at large.
“My presence along with myriad gender identities isn’t a burden, it’s a privilege,” they wrote. “We are a world beyond the binary. This advocacy for the non-binary category is bigger than our industry; it contributes to normalizing our bodies.”
Despite increased trans representation onscreen, numerous trans and non-binary actors have been widely snubbed by awards ceremonies in recent years — with last night’s Golden Globes not featuring a single trans or non-binary person up for a major award. Orange Is the New Black actress Laverne Cox herself criticized the Emmys last year after losing the same category four years a row. Meanwhile, Pose, the Ryan Murphy drama which has the largest trans ensemble cast in history, has also been repeatedly ignored by the Emmys, despite widespread critical acclaim.
Anzoategui ended their column by imploring the world to let trans and non-binary actors to “show you the beauty of what our gender encompasses.” “Stop limiting us from the endless ways in which we embody our gender,” they said. “Embrace us. All of us.”
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