The 'Hidden Figures' actress claims it took time for her to come out because she grew up from a 'super religious and super conservative' family in Kansas City, Kansas.

• Apr 22, 2022

AceShowbiz - Janelle Monae has come out as non-binary. When clarifying her gender identity on "Red Table Talk", the "Hidden Figures" actress made it clear that she will "always stand with black women" despite not seeing herself as one.

"I'm nonbinary, so I just don't see myself as a woman, solely. I feel all of my energy. I feel like God is so much bigger than the 'he' or the 'she,' " she told hosts Willow Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith and Adrienne Banfield-Norris. "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 see everything that I am. Beyond the binary," she added. "I don't see how you identify.... And I feel like that opens you up to fall in love with whoever, with any beautiful spirit."

Janelle divulged that her process of coming out is very personal. "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,' " she recalled. "That's what I didn't want to do. So I thought I needed 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," the singer continued. "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 - that's what they call me back home."

Noting that she grew up from a "super religious and super conservative" family in Kansas City, Kansas, Janelle said it took time for her to come out. "My whole family is church, church, church and I'm just like, 'Well what does it meant to go against your whole family on this thing?' But I was ready," she said. "I needed to have those conversations. I didn't want to work that out with the world."

Back in 2018, Janelle came out as pansexual, meaning she's attracted to people regardless of their sex or gender identity. Later in 2020, she retweeted a meme with the hashtag #IAmNonbinary. However, she told Variety a month later that she was tweeting support for Nonbinary Day "and to bring more awareness to the community."