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OPEN: Janelle Monáe

JANELLE MONAÉ has revealed that some of her family members have still not accepted her sexuality a year after she came out as pansexual.

The Dirty Computer singer publicly announced that she was pansexual in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in April 2018.

During the interview Monáe spoke about being a queer black woman in America and how she initially identified as bisexual, having been in relationships with both men and women but then discovered pansexuality.

While she’s received a lot of support for her decision to come out from fans and friends, Monáe has revealed that not all of her family have been as understanding but she doesn’t hold it against them.

Speaking to In Style, she said: “The majority of [my family] grew up Baptist, and the sermons would all be around how if you are a homosexual or if you’re gay and you don’t repent and live a hetero-normative life and get married, well … hell is your final destination.”

Monáe’s mum, who she said had a lot of questions when she was told, has become her biggest defender.

The Pynk singer, who recently performed in London as part of the final leg of her Dirty Computer tour, told In Style: “I talked to my mom and dad first, and my mom, in particular, had a lot of questions. I said, ‘Mama, the only way that I can create art is to truthfully tell my story. It has to come from an honest place, and this is who I honestly am. I don’t know any other way. I have to talk about my sexuality. I have to talk about my blackness. I have to talk about my womanness. I have to talk about these things. This is who I am as a person.’ ”

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