At Harry Styles concerts, young gender-nonconforming fans celebrate the freedom to be themselves
LOS ANGELES — Katelyn could hardly believe it.
Harry Styles' percussionist, Pauli Lovejoy, picked up the nonbinary pride flag their friend had tossed onstage and began dancing and waving it while Styles sang. It was October of last year, and Styles was performing in Nashville. Katelyn, a nonbinary fan who asked to go by their first name because they have not yet come out to certain family members, screamed with joy at the top of their lungs.
"It just made me feel so safe and validated and loved for being who I am," said Katelyn, 19, who uses they/them pronouns. "I came out to a lot of people after that experience."
It's no secret that Styles is a champion of the LGBTQ community, but to a special section of that fan base — his young gender-nonconforming devotees — Styles' ability to exist comfortably, and extremely publicly, in a fluid space along the gender spectrum is particularly resonant. For them, Styles, 28, is an
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