Janelle Monáe.Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty
Janelle Monáeis opening up about her gender identity with the Smith family.
In an episode ofRed Table Talkreleased Wednesday, the 36-year-old musician and actor revealed she identifies as non-binary, and she toldThe Los Angeles Timesshe’ll use both they/them and she/her pronouns going forward.
“I just don’t see myself as a woman, solely. I feel all of my energy,” Monáe said to the show’s hosts,Jada Pinkett Smith,Willow Smith, andAdrienne Banfield-Norris. I feel like God is so much bigger than the ‘he’ or the ‘she.'"
“And if I am from God, I am everything. But I will always, always stand with women,” continuedTheMemory Librarianauthor, who came out as pansexual in 2018. “I will always stand with Black women. But I just see everything that I am, beyond the binary.”
Speaking toThe Los Angeles Timesabout her non-binary identity in an interview published Thursday, Monáe cheekily joked about the different sets of pronouns other individuals can acceptedly use to address her: “My pronouns are free-ass-motherf—er and they/them, her/she.”
Elsewhere in theRed Table Talkepisode, the “Make Me Feel” singer opened up to Willow, 21, about the decision to publicly discuss her gender identity. “Somebody said, ‘If you don’t work out the things that you need to work out first before you share with the world, then you’ll be working it out with the world,'” Monáe explained. “That’s what I didn’t want to do. So I thought I needed to have all my answers correct, I didn’t want to say the wrong thing.”
When seeking romance, theHidden Figuresstar said a potential partner’s specific gender identity doesn’t affect her attraction. “I don’t see how you identify,” she said. “And I feel like that opens you up to fall in love with whoever, with any beautiful spirit.”
Monáe also spoke to the Smiths about the decision to come out later in life. “Thinking back to when I first started, I was like, man, as free as I was on stage, when I came off stage, I was still that scared little girl,” detailed the performer. “Like I’m not good enough.”
“Now, he’s clean,” she said of her father. “Completely sober, he’s doing incredible, he’s like my best friend.”
source: people.com
