Monáe: “I’m Nonbinary”
Two years after stating they were “exploring” their gender identity, LGBTQ award-winning singer, actor and author Janelle Monáe came out as nonbinary publicly.
Monáe revealed how they identify during an interview on the season premiere of “Red Table Talk,” the Facebook Watch talk show hosted by Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow Smith and Adrienne Banfield-Norris, on Wednesday.
“I’m nonbinary, so I don’t just see myself as a woman solely,” Monáe said. “I feel all of my energy. I feel like God is so much bigger than the ‘he’ or ‘she.’ And if I am from God, I am everything. I am everything. But I will always, always stand with women. I will always stand with Black women. But I just just see everything that I am. Beyond the binary.”
‘You know what? If they don’t love me, don’t call me asking me for no money.’
You will not get my LGBTQIA+ money,”
The moment at the Red Table represents another step in Monáe embracing their LGBTQ identity in the public eye. They came out as pansexual in 2018, becoming a prominent entertainment figure for LGBTQ populations in the process. Monáe previously hinted as identifying beyond the gender binary in 2020 when they retweeted an image from “Steven Universe” with the hashtag “#IAmNonbinary.” They later clarified to Variety that they were “exploring” their gender identity.
“I definitely don’t live my life in a binary way,” Monáe said in the 2020 interview. “I have fought against gender norms, and what it means to be a woman and what it means to be a man. I’m a fucking android … I’m so happy that people are learning more about what it means to be gender non-conforming and what it means to be nonbinary.”
Sharing With The World
Monáe’s time at the Smiths’ table also saw them detail the issues and fears they overcame in coming out to their “super conservative” family. “Somebody said, ‘If you don’t work out things that you need to work out first before you share with the world, then you’ll be working it out with the world.’ That’s what I didn’t want to do,” they said. “I thought I need to have all my answers correct. I don’t want to say the wrong thing, and also I hadn’t had the necessary conversations with my family. I wasn’t ready to have my family question my personal life or get calls from people who still look at me as ‘Little Pumpkin.'”
“I had to be where I was. I know who I am.
I’ve been playing a version of some parts of me,
but now I’m owning all of me. I had to own all of me
to really be able to talk about it publicly.”
–Janelle Monáe
“My whole family is church, church, church and I’m just like, ‘Well what does it mean to go against your whole family on this thing?’ But I was ready. I was like, ‘You know what? If they don’t love me, don’t call me asking me for no money.’ You will not get my LGBTQIA+ money,” Monáe continued.
“But, yeah, I needed to have those conversations. I needed to talk to my dad who was just great. My sister knew already because I’ve been in monogamous relationships, I’ve been in polyamorous relationships. But I knew I couldn’t be ‘Little Pumpkin,’ I couldn’t be little Janelle,” they added. “I had to be where I was. I know who I am. I’ve been playing a version of some parts of me, but now I’m owning all of me. I had to own all of me to really be able to talk about it publicly.”
The conversation with Monáe also touched on their ability to overcome past traumas connected to their family and issues with acceptance even as their career was taking off. “I was thinking back to when I first started and I was like, man, as free as I was onstage, when I came off stage, I was still that scared little girl. Like, ‘I’m not good enough.’ That was always in the back of my mind. ‘Will they love me,'” Monáe said. “I’ve been doing a lot of healing … we just have to be fine with letting go.”
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Screenshot via Red Table Talk/Facebook Watch
