Sara Ramirez, best known for playing Dr. Callie Torres on "Grey's Anatomy," came out this week as gender nonbinary.
In a post shared on Instagram Thursday, Ramirez said, "In me is the capacity to be" everything from a "girlish boy" to a "boyish girl."
Ramirez included the hashtag #nonbinary in the caption of the post and has since updated their bio on social media accounts to read "non-binary human." Their bio also states that they use both she/her and they/them pronouns.
Their announcement has sparked elated responses online, with some dubbing the actor a "nonbinary queen."
Ramirez's "Grey's Anatomy" character came out as bisexual in a 2009 episode, paving the way for greater bisexual representation on-screen. In 2016, Ramirez themself came out as bisexual following the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, which left 49 people dead and 50 others wounded. Ramirez said the shooting, which was one of the deadliest attacks on LGBTQ people and Latinos in modern U.S. history, inspired their decision to come out.
"Coming out publicly was something that I was afraid of because I was concerned that it would affect my career in a negative way,” they told People magazine. "I was afraid of the discrimination I might face, not just outside Hollywood, but inside.”
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Yet after the shooting, Ramirez felt called to use their voice to bring increased attention to the violence LGBTQ people regularly face.
"As I continued to read and hear about the countless forms of violence perpetrated against us, including the Orlando shooting at Pulse nightclub, an organic, incremental urgency to use my platform to empower those who are part of these communities that I’m a part of came over me in a way that I’ve never felt before," Ramirez told People.
Ramirez joins a growing number of celebrities who identify as nonbinary, including Sam Smith, who came out as such last year. "Billions" star Asia Kate Dillon, "Transparent" creator Jill Soloway and Valentina, a previous contestant on "RuPaul's Drag Race," also identify as nonbinary.
