From left: Michelle Rodiguez, Bella Ramsey, Janelle Monae, and Renee Rapp.
Kathy Hutchins/Shutterstock; DFree/Shutterstock; Ovidiu Hrubaru/Shutterstock; Featureflash Photo Agency/Shutterstock
Nonbinary The Last of Us star Bella Ramsey just opened up for the first time about being autistic in a new interview with British Vogue.
“I got diagnosed with autism when I was filming season one of The Last of Us,” Ramsey revealed.
But Ramsey isn’t the only LGBTQ+ who is neurodiverse. There are plenty of other queer celebrities who are also autistic or have ADHD or OCD.
One thing these queer stars seem to agree on is that being neurodiverse has helped them in different ways despite living in a neurotypical world that can often be judgmental.
Bella Ramsey
“The label of being autistic has been so helpful to me because that’s helped me to understand myself, but gender and sexuality-wise, labels do not feel comfy for me in any capacity, because I feel like I’m putting myself into a box. I feel trapped,” nonbinary The Last of Us star Bella Ramsey told British Vogue in their first interview talking about their diagnosis.
Ramsey went on to say that being autistic is actually a gift when it comes to acting, “I’ve always been watching and learning from people. Having to learn more manually how to socialize and interact with the people around me has helped me with acting.” Being on set, too, offers a routine: “I have a call time, and I’m told what to wear, how to stand, where to stand and what to eat.” They describe the diagnosis as “freeing… It enables me to walk through the world with more grace towards myself about not being able to do the easy everyday tasks that everyone else seems to be able to do.”
Janelle Monáe
“Most people don’t understand what’s going on in my brain,” nonbinary singer Janelle Monáe told Ms. Magazine about their OCD diagnosis. “It’s beautiful that I have a title called The Age of Pleasure because it actually re-centers me. It’s not about an album anymore. I’ve changed my whole fucking lifestyle.”
Wentworth Miller
"This isn't something I'd change … immediately being autistic is central to who I am. To everything I've achieved/articulated," actor Wentworth Miller wrote on Instagram, People reported back in 2021.
He continued, "This fall marks 1 year since I received my informal autism diagnosis. Preceded by a self-diagnosis. Followed by a formal diagnosis. It was a long, flawed process in need of updating. IMO. I'm a middle-aged man. Not a 5-year-old."
Bradley Riches
"Acting is an escapism for me. I feel free and understood when playing characters when, most of the time, I felt misunderstood as Bradley. I am so happy that I can show autistic people that they aren’t alone and that they aren’t invisible – they are beautiful and magical,” gay and autistic Heartstopper star Bradley Riches — who was diagnosed when he was 9 years old — told Metro after landing a role on the queer Netflix teen drama.
Hannah Gadsby
“For a long time, I worried that I’d been misdiagnosed. It was difficult to believe that I wasn’t entirely to blame for my life being such a painful struggle, because I was so used to assuming I was a bad person. It took me a long time to get brave enough to simply share my diagnosis. My experience did not match the popular understanding of autism, and I knew I had to become an expert in neurobiology in order to untangle the myriad myths surrounding autism – just to beg permission to claim that piece of my identity,” genderqueer comedian Hannah Gadsby wrote in an essay for The Guardian about being autistic.
Michelle Rodriguez
"I want to write and direct but it’s not easy with ADHD. I have a hard time focusing when I’m alone,” bisexual Girlfight star Michelle Rodriguez told Cosmopolitan back in 2013. But she also admitted to being nervous to try medication. "I’m a scatterbrain,” she added. "But I'm nervous of taking medication. I don't really want to depend on anything to control my brain."
Cara Delevingne
"I’m not in hell now. The things that stick with all of us the most are the darker times, the more traumatic times,” queer model and actress Cara Delevingne said on This Morning discussing her challenges with ADHD . “Those are some of the points I remember the most. I didn’t know how to communicate my emotions. I was very ashamed of the way I felt. I had a very privileged upbringing, I was very lucky, I went to an amazing school.”
She continued, "And then the guilt of feeling that way and not being able to tell anyone because I shouldn’t feel that way and I shouldn’t feel bad. It’s the guilt."
Josh Thomas
Autistic comedian and actor Josh Thomas wasn’t diagnosed until he was adult, but he think it helped him when making his podcast How To Be Gay. “I was more aware of the fact that [I’m] bad at some stuff … getting people to feel comfortable and talk about themselves – I wouldn’t say I’m the frontrunner for that job. Which I think got us interesting interviews because I’m so direct, and nobody sounds like they’re bullshitting or being performative,” he told The Guardian.
Reneé Rapp
“I didn’t know I had ADHD as a kid, I just thought I was really dramatic! I am, but that’s a separate thing,” queer singer and actress Reneé Rapp said in an interview with Official Charts to talk about her album Snow Angel. "I didn’t know or understand what it was, but now I do and I really love it. I think it helps me a lot. When I’m writing a song, ten songs are coming out of that concept. My brain is in ten different places. I actually really enjoy it. It’s exhausting, don’t get me wrong, but it’s really fun. If it’s somebody else’s story and a different creative process, I don’t do as well and I might panic. When it’s my thing, though, I’m like ‘wow, I have so many ideas!’”
Ellen DeGeneres
“My ADD makes it really hard to sit down and focus on anything at all,” Ellen DeGeneres said in her Netflix stand-up special, Additude reported. “I mean, do you know how hard it was for me to put this together? Of course you don't. Why would I ask that question?”
DeGeneres continued, “So, I have ADD, I have OCD, I'm losing my memory. But I think I'm well-adjusted because I obsess on things, but I don't have the attention span to stick with it, and I quickly forget what I was obsessing about in the first place,” she added. “So, it takes me all the way around to being well adjusted, I think.”
Hormona Lisa
“I briefly mentioned this after my elimination, but I want to officially share that I have been diagnosed with autism,” Drag Race star Hormona Lisa revealed on Reddit. “I received my diagnosis nearly 7 years ago, and it really helped explain a lot of my life experiences, like never quite fitting in, no matter how much I wanted to, or people not quite understanding me. It can be frustrating at times, especially when I feel like I’m expressing something one way, but others don’t see it the same way. Still, it’s a part of who I am, and I wouldn’t change it!”
“I really hope that by sharing my story, I can give others with autism the courage to embrace who they are, even when it feels like the world doesn’t quite get them,” Hormona previously told PRIDE. “Sharing my diagnosis has always been something I’ve been hesitant about, but I’ve come to realize that being open about it is important — not just for me, but for others who might feel alone in their own struggles."
Bex Taylor-Klaus
"Embrace it. It may be a nuisance, it may be hard to deal with sometimes, but you can learn to manage it. Don't ever try to get rid of it entirely. Attention deficit makes you special,” nonbinary actor Bex Taylor-Klaus said of their ADHD diagnosis, Additude reported. Since then Taylor-Klaus has been open about being AuDHD, meaning that they are both autistic and have ADHD.
11 times J.K. Rowling did something wildly transphobic, ranked
J.K. Rowling attends day four of Royal Ascot at Ascot Racecourse on June 20, 2025 in Ascot, England.
This story originally appeared on Out.
For almost a decade now, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has been spreading transphobia and has become the poster child for the UK’s troubling movement of TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminists). She has gone on transphobic tirades on social media, written a nearly 4,000-word anti-trans manifesto, donated some of her fortune to anti-trans causes, regularly misgenders trans women, and gleefully celebrates every time the transgender community has their rights stripped away.
The author, once revered for creating an inclusive fantasy world where good triumphs over evil, let her LGBTQ+ fans down by consistently doubling down on her transphobic rhetoric. She has painted trans women as predators who are lying about their gender to take away women’s rights and enter women’s spaces under false pretenses. This dangerous vitriol has even caused many of the stars of the Harry Potter franchise to come forward and call her out for her anti-trans takes.
For queer and trans fans of Harry Potter, this abrupt turn was jarring and has undermined their love of a fictional world where marginalized groups are loved and fought for. But Rowling hasn’t just disappointed her fans by spreading her hateful views; she’s also done so in some of the most bizarre ways, leaving many people not just outraged, but scratching their heads.
11. Tone deaf Dolly Parton tribute
Rowling joined the world in mourning Dolly Parton by posting a tribute on X that backfired when the country music legend’s fans came out in droves to point out that Parton loved the LGBTQ+ community and wouldn’t have supported Rowling’s TERF views.
After Parton fans flooded Rowling’s comment section with messages like, “She certainly would have thought of you as a nasty, hateful woman. Nice little tweet though,” Rowling attempted to hit back after a user called her “a fucking monster” by posting, “Well, joke’s on you, because neither of us want Jolene to take our man.”
10. Accidentally wrote “f*ck up some TERFs” on a child’s drawing
Seemingly by mistake, Rowling replied to post on X about a nine-year-old kid’s drawing of Ickabog, a monster from her children’s book, by including text she likely meant to copy and paste elsewhere.
“I love this truly fabulous Ickabog, with its bat ears, mismatched eyes, and terrifying bloodstained teeth! In court, Wolf claimed the Facebook post in which he’d said he wanted to ‘f*** up some TERFs’ was just ‘bravado’. #TheIckabog.”
Internet sleuths figured out that in the post, Rowling was misgendering Tara Wolf, a trans woman accused of assaulting Maria MacLachlan, who was at an anti-trans protest in 2017.
9. Accused Olympic boxer Imane Khelif of being trans
When Algerian boxer Imane Khelif took home gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Rowling joined fellow wealthy bigot Elon Musk in spreading the rumor that the cisgender boxer was secretly a man, leaning hard into the ever-present transphobia and anti-intersex hate in women's sports.
Even after both Rowling and Musk were named in a criminal complaint filed with French authorities over alleged “acts of aggravated cyber harassment,” Rowling refused to let it go and continued to post anti-trans posts accusing Khelif of lying about her gender.
8. Transvestigated another athlete
Less than five months after harassing Olympic boxer Imane Khelif for supposedly being trans, Rowling joined in on another transvestigation of a woman in sports when she accused cisgender Zambian soccer player Barbra Banda of secretly being a man — she is not.
Rowling took exception to the BBC naming Banda the 2024 Women’s Footballer of the Year. “Presumably the BBC decided this was more time efficient than going door to door to spit directly in women's faces," Rowling wrote on X.
7. Smoked a cigar to celebrate being a TERF
After donating £70,000 (roughly $88,200) to the anti-trans group For Women Scotland in 2024 to help them fight against a 2018 Scottish law that legally recognized trans women as women, Rowling celebrated in a ghoulish way when the U.K. Supreme Court decided that trans women aren’t considered women under the nation’s Equality Act.
Rowling responded to the court decision by posting a photo of herself with a drink in one hand and smoking a cigar with the other. While people like right-wing commentator Megyn Kelly commented “God bless you,” the post was also full of people slamming her for her cruelty in the face of people having their rights taken away. Pedro Pascal even called her out for doing “Voldemort villain s---" and referred to Rowling as a "heinous loser."
6. Accidentally turned herself into a meme
Rowling accidentally turned herself into a meme when she changed her profile pic on X to a photo that showed what looked like black mold-covered walls inside her mansion.
While the photo most likely shows wallpaper and not mold, users ran with it and began joking that the black mold had infected her brain as an explanation for her hateful anti-trans views.
5. Whined about being doxxed
On the eve of Transgender Day of Remembrance in 2021, comedian Holly Stars, actor Georgia Frost and drag king Richard Energy protested Rowling’s anti-trans views by staging a demonstration and posting a photo holding signs in front of the author’s home near Edinburgh, Scotland.
Rowling took exception to her house numbers being visible in the photo and accused the “actor activists” of “doxxing” her in an eight-tweet rant on X. But is it doxxing if the information is already public? Rowling claimed she received “so many death threats I could paper the house with them,” but both of her residences are historical landmarks, and one even has its own Wikipedia page.
4. Wrote a transphobic character that sounds an awful lot like herself
Under her pen name Robert Galbraith, Rowling wrote The Ink Black Heart, where a character gets harassed and doxxed because of their transphobic and racist views.
Rowling claimed that the character wasn’t based on her own experience, despite Rolling Stone writing that the character is doxxed “with photos of her home plastered on the internet” and subjected “to death and rape threats for having an opinion,” which probably sounds pretty familiar to people who have been following the author’s anti-trans outbursts.
3. Called David Tennant the "gender Taliban"
Rowling called Harry Potter actor David Tennant and people like him the “gender Taliban” in a post on X after he spoke out at the British LGBT Awards, where he called transgender critics “a tiny bunch of little whinging f*ckers who are on the wrong side of history, and they’ll all go away soon” and said they are on the “wrong side of history.”
In response, Rowling leaned into hateful anti-trans rhetoric that conflates being transgender with being an abuser of women. “This man is talking about rape survivors who want female-only care, the nurses currently suing their health trust for making them change in front of a man, girls and women losing sporting opportunities to males and female prisoners incarcerated with convicted sex offenders,” she wrote.
2. Dared police to arrest her
Rowling spoke out against Scotland’s new hate crime act in 2024 by daring police to arrest her for misgendering trans women. The act criminalizes “stirring up hatred” regarding age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity and variations in sex characteristics, which can result in a fine or a seven-year prison sentence.
Rowling then went on a lengthy tirade on X — something she is known for at this point — where she accused lawmakers of protecting trans women at the expense of “the rights and freedoms of actual women and girls.” She finished by telling the police to come and arrest her if what she wrote “qualifies as an offense” under the new law. “I look forward to being arrested when I return to the birthplace of the Scottish Enlightenment,” she wrote.
1. Posted an upskirt photo
Rowling, who claims to be a protector of women and rails against trans women being allowed in women’s restrooms, targeted a transgender British podcaster who she disagrees with by posting an upskirt photo of her. Freda Wallace became Rowling’s latest target when she refused to engage with the transphobe online.
Rowling responded by misgendering Wallace and posting a photo of her originally taken by anti-trans activist and fellow transphobe Maya Forstater, from slightly below Wallace to show her upper thigh. Rowling said that Wallace refused to debate her but to prove she has “no hard feelings” she posted the photo of another debate. “I hear he left an indelible impression on the audience. And the chair,” Rowling wrote.