The "I only date androids" era is over.
Janelle Monáe just addressed her sexuality publicly for the first time this week, officially coming out as pansexual in a new interview with Rolling Stone.
The 32-year-old singer has never shied away from themes related to sexuality within her music — see: "PYNK" and its accompanying music video — though Monáe has always been careful not to label herself.
"It had to do with the fear of being judged," she told the magazine for its latest cover story. "All I saw was that I was supposed to look a certain way coming into this industry, and I felt like I [didn't] look like a stereotypical black female artist."
But she's not holding back anymore: "Being a queer black woman in America, someone who has been in relationships with both men and women — I consider myself to be a free-ass motherf*cker.”
All of this is an ongoing process, Monáe adds; she's still evolving her own understanding of her own sexuality. She explains that she used to identify as bisexual, but then "I read about pansexuality and was like, ‘Oh, these are things that I identify with too.' ”
Now that she's come out, she's hoping to send a message to her fans: "I want young girls, young boys, nonbinary, gay, straight, queer people who are having a hard time dealing with their sexuality, dealing with feeling ostracized or bullied for just being their unique selves, to know that I see you," she says.
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Read Monáe's entire interview over at Rolling Stone.
