Eddie Izzard says it’s a ‘great honour’ to use she/her pronouns: ‘I was promoted to she’
Suzy Eddie Izzard. (Getty)
Eddie Izzard has said it’s a “great honour” to be recognised by she/her pronouns two years after she first used them during a TV appearance.
During a 2020 appearance on Portrait Artist of the Year Izzard said she wanted “to be based in girl mode from now on” after previously identifying as gender-fluid.
In a new interview with with The Irish Times she recalled that she was asked what pronouns she would like to be used, responding: “Prefer she/her, don’t mind he/him, so no one can get it wrong. And I didn’t change them. The world changed them.”
At the time of her appearance on the programme Izzard had been thinking about about changing her pronouns. Following the show being aired with her she/her pronouns being used she said the “whole world changed them”.
“All news outlets, particularly in America and Britain, where I’m known probably the strongest and Australia and Canada and New Zealand, where I’m also known, she/her now. And I went, ‘Oh, okay’.
“I thought it was a great honour, I’ve been promoted – promoted to she. That’s how it was. But I didn’t actively have a campaign about it. It just happened. You know, I came out 37 years ago.
“Some people grumble. I say, well, how much notice do you need? Thirty-eight years? Thirty-nine years?”
Since adopting the pronouns Izzard said she has faced transphobia, especially following her bid for a seat in Parliament.
“We were considered nonpeople, or toxic people. And I realised that my job is to try and knit being trans into society. We had a hard time just trying to exist.
“A lot of people have been wonderfully accepting, and young people are very open and great. Some people are still transphobic, but I just ignore them.”
It follows the comedian-turned-politician accepting defeat on 4 December in 2022 after she lost her bid to become Sheffield’s Labour candidate.
She has since opened a one-woman production of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations.
During her bid to secure a seat Izzard was attacked by Tory MP Lee Anderson who made transphobic comments about her in an interview on TalkTV.
In the interview Anderson repeatedly misgendered Izzard and said he would “not follow [her] into the toilets”, sparking widespread condemnation.
However, the Met Police told PinkNews they will not be investigating the MP as “no offences have been identified”.
