Bisexual YOU star Saffron Burrows reveals her 12-year-old has come out as non-binary
Saffron Burrows has shared that her 12-year-old has come out as non-binary. (Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Proof of Concept)
Saffron Burrows has shared that her 12-year-old has come out as non-binary. (Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Proof of Concept)
Actress Saffron Burrows has revealed that her 12-year-old has come out as non-binary, and she’s praised their “very developed” views on gender and identity.
Burrows, who starred in Netflix show YOU as Dottie Quinn, shares two children with her ex-wife, screenwriter Alison Balian.
The bisexual actress, who came out in 1999, spoke about her 12-year-old, gender and identity while on episode 26 of the Circle This podcast.
‘I’m in a state of learning’
She said of her daughter: “I’m the parent now of a non-binary child.
“I’m in a state of learning all the time about how they want to be addressed, what their philosophies are on the world – which are already very developed, aged just twelve.”
Gender is a spectrum. While a lot of people are at either end, a lot of people are in the middle. Non-binary people can identify with various degrees of masculinity and femininity, androgyny or have no gender at all.
Burrows added that her children are “very smart” and reflected on how she was brought up in a household that also enabled her to freely express herself.
‘I’ve been very fortunate’
“As a kid, I was always drawn to who I thought were the most interesting people in the room – sometimes boys, sometimes girls.
“But I was always drawn to very strong individuals – as most of us are. I’m not unusual in that, but I remember thinking I had the right to love who I wanted to love.”
She added of her former primary school teacher and equal rights activist mum: “My mum gave me that sense of self… And I’ve lived by that. I’ve been very fortunate to be able to live by that. The vast majority of the population in the world isn’t in that position.”
Burrows said she hopes to pass the philosophy to her children.
“It’s something I would hope to give my children – and to their friends and their circle, too.”
In the 90s, Burrows had a two-year relationship with Alan Cumming, who is now married to Grant Shaffer.
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