Miley Cyrus: ‘I always hated the word bisexual’
The singer has discussed struggling to come to terms with her pansexuality.
Pop star and LGBT activist Miley Cyrus has opened up about her pansexuality and struggling to come to terms with her gender identity.
“My whole life, I didn’t understand my own gender and my own sexuality. I always hated the word ‘bisexual,’ because that’s even putting me in a box,” she told Variety.
“I don’t ever think about someone being a boy or someone being a girl,” she added.
“My first relationship in my life was with a chick. I grew up in a very religious Southern family.”
Now engaged to movie star Liam Hemsworth, Cyrus says she didn’t understand her identity until she met other members of the community.
“I went to the LGBTQ centre here in L.A. and I started hearing these stories,” she explained.
“I saw one human in particular who didn’t identify as male or female. Looking at them, they were both: beautiful and sexy and tough but vulnerable and feminine but masculine.
“And I related to that person more than I related to anyone in my life,” she added.
“Even though I may seem very different, people may not see me as neutral as I feel.
“But I feel very neutral. I think that was the first gender-neutral person I’d ever met.
“Once I understood my gender more, which was unassigned, then I understood my sexuality more.
“I was like, ‘Oh—that’s why I don’t feel straight and I don’t feel gay. It’s because I’m not.’”
Cyrus has been outspoken in her support of the LGBT community in the past – even getting a tattoo in support equal marriage.
Discussing her pansexuality for the first time last year, she said she is “open” to “everything that’s legal”.
