In their popular TV show and podcast, Jonathan Van Ness explores topics from architecture to gender, figure skating to insects. But perhaps one of the most memorable moments of “Getting Curious” was their sit-down interview with Rep. Pressley for a discussion about hair; specifically, Pressley's struggles with alopecia, and her work on the federal CROWN Act, which bans discrimination based on hairstyle or hair texture.
“Congresswoman Pressley is someone who I've looked up to so much, long before I got the opportunity to create ‘Getting Curious’ on Netflix, and she is someone who I think has been a fierce advocate for all of her constituents,” Van Ness told Boston Public Radio, ahead of their performances at the Chevalier Theatre in Medford on March 16 and 17. “She is just one of the most impressive thought leaders I've ever gotten the opportunity to talk to. I think that she is just so incredibly compassionate but strong at the same time.”
“[Rep. Pressley] said something to me in that interview," they recalled. "She said, if we legislated harm and injustice that was codified for years and years in this country, she feels that if hate and harm can be legislated, then so can healing. And I thought that was a really incredible way to think about the legislative process.”
Though Van Ness had previously visited Congress to lobby for PrEP access and coverage — which would increase access to pre-exposure prophylaxis to reduce the transmission of HIV — they first met Rep. Pressley about a month after the Jan. 6 Capitol attacks.
“It was just such a different feeling at the Capitol," they said. "It was very surreal for someone in the public sphere, like Congresswoman Pressley, to be so open about her experience with alopecia and all of the vitriol that she faced anyway just for being a Black woman in Congress. There's a lot that goes along with that, especially in this polarized environment that we find ourselves in politically — but to go through that, too.”
Van Ness has been an outspoken advoate for trans rights, but the latest season of Netflix’s “Queer Eye" has faced mild criticism for taking place exclusively in Texas. While the show began filming in 2020, the season premiered shortly after Texas’ nearly complete ban on abortion in the state and just a couple of months before Republican Governor Greg Abbott’s order instructing state child welfare officials to investigate families whose transgender children receive gender-affirming care.
“[For] this reboot of ‘Queer Eye,’ the original tagline was ‘turning red states pink, one makeover at a time.’ So it was never the intention to shy away from people that are not on the same political spectrum as what we necessarily are,” Van Ness said. “To be a gender non-conforming person living in Texas now, which I am, because I stayed after production…it's been a very difficult time to live in Texas and to see what this legislature has done.”
While the laws targeting trans and gender non-conforming people in Texas, and elsewhere, have been challenging to face, Van Ness is focused on creating a better future for others in the queer community.
“To be a queer person in the United States, these legislative attacks aren't new. There's an influx of them, but we've been living with this for a long time. It's an experience of duality, because you want to connect with people, you want to reach out to people,” Van Ness said. “But it is hard to do that in a place where these things are going on. But I think that both things can exist at once, that you can want to connect with people and want to make things better in the face of these horrific laws that are being passed.”
