Supriya Ganesh, an actor who famously played Dr. Samira Mohan on HBO’s medical drama The Pitt, just announced yesterday via an interview with Variety that they’re queer, and use she/they pronouns.
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Ganesh, who has lived in both India and the United States, detailed to Variety how they were shocked at the American restrictions on gender—something completely contrary to India, where the idea of a third gender is accepted.
She details how in India there “is a little more fluidity in how men present themselves, women present themselves. So I think coming here, I felt this instinctive need to want to react against it, which I think is interesting because I feel like a lot of the times I do present as pretty femme. But there are a couple of times where I’m existing outside of that, and I don’t always totally feel like I’m fitting into what I think is a very white-conceived perception of femininity.”
They continued, citing Lily Gladstone as their inspiration for coming out. “So that was a decision I think I made about a year and a half ago,” they explained, “actually influenced by Lily Gladstone in her decision to adopt she/they pronouns in acknowledgement of third-spirit people and some two-spirit people, I think that was a moment where I felt really seen, where I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, I don’t need to fit into this.’”
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Ganesh added a correction on Instagram, stating they meant to say “third gender and two-spirit people.”
They concluded, “Even though I feel like I identify a lot more with femininity, that doesn’t mean I always fit into what is a very Western idea of it. So I think that was why I made that decision. It also feels like a little bit of a shout-out, being like, “Hey, I’m queer. See me.” I feel like sometimes I pass really well. I also want queer brown women to look at me and know that that’s someone they can turn to and relate to.”
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