If there is anyone who knows how to make history, it’s Lily Gladstone.
In January 2024, the queer actor – best known for her career-defining role in Killers of the Flower Moon – made history when she became the first Native American and Indigenous person to win the Golden Globe for Best Actress.
“This is a historic win,” they said while accepting the win. “This is for every little rez kid, every little urban kid, every little Native kid out there who has a dream, who is seeing themselves represented and our stories told — by ourselves, in our own words — with tremendous allies and tremendous trust from and with each other.”
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But her reign didn’t end there. Later that month, Gladstone became the first Native American woman to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress.
Gladstone’s historic wins and nominations were enough to keep us gooped and gagged for a lifetime.
But then they revealed a part of themselves that still has us cheering: In an interview with People, Gladstone shared that she uses she/they pronouns, explaining how, “in most Native languages, most Indigenous languages, Blackfeet included, there are no gendered pronouns. There is no he/she, there’s only they.”
For Gladstone, using she/they pronouns is “partly a way of decolonizing gender for myself,” and “embracing that when I’m in a group of ladies, I know that I’m a little bit different. When I’m in a group of men, I don’t feel like a man. I don’t feel [masculine] at all. I feel probably more feminine when I’m around other men.”
She’s also seen the impacts of gender when it comes to participating in Indigenous ceremonies.
“In ceremony, a lot of times where you sit in the circle is a gendered thing,” she said. “I happen to sit in circles that are very embracing of all of our people. And I’ve seen people change where they sit in the circle based upon how they’re feeling that day.”
Gladstone shared a similar sentiment with Variety, when asked about the intersection between their queer and Indigenous identity.
“A lot of our nations have very specific, different words for multiple genders so it’s really not a ‘thing’ to be non-binary. There are societal roles, and an acceptance,” they said.
"Fancy Dance's" Lily Gladstone on the intersection of Indigenous and queer identities: “What I’ve noticed is that a lot of the people in our communities who care most about language revitalization are queer.” #Sundance https://t.co/KHQa4PC5YT pic.twitter.com/DlGtBABjXT
— Variety (@Variety) January 20, 2023
And as the film industry continues to embrace multiple identities – namely through genderless categories at award ceremonies – Gladstone told People they remain hopeful.
“I think it’s really cool that we’re seeing ‘performer’ and we’re seeing everybody brought in together,” they said. “I do feel that historically having gendered categories has helped from keeping women actors from a lot of erasure because I think historically people just tend to honor male performances more. I know a lot of actresses who are very proud of the word ‘actress’ or are very proud of being an actress. I don’t know, maybe it’s just an overly semantic thing where I’m like, if there’s not a ‘director-ess,’ then there shouldn’t be actresses. There’s no ‘producer-ess,’ there’s no ‘cinematographer-ess.’”
In any case, we are so ahem, glad people like Lily Gladstone are having their moment in Hollywood! She’s not only giving much-needed Indigenous representation for many, but also sparking important conversations around gender identity in the industry. We are proud to have them on Queerty’s Pride50!
