Janelle Monáe comes out as nonbinary: What to know
Janelle Monáe opened up about her gender identity and came out as nonbinary during the latest episode of "Red Table Talk."
The "Make Me Feel" singer sat down with hosts Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow Smith and Adrienne Banfield-Norris for a personal interview, which aired Wednesday, telling the trio, "I'm nonbinary, so I just don't see myself as a woman, solely."
"I feel all of my energy," Monáe, 36, continued. "I feel like God is so much bigger than the 'he' or the 'she'...and if I am from God, I am everything."
Monáe, who starred in the hit 2017 film "Hidden Figures," told the hosts she will always stand with women -- and Black women, in particular -- before adding, "I just see everything that I am, beyond the binary."
Nonbinary is defined by Merriam-Webster as "relating to or being a person who identifies with or expresses a gender identity that is neither entirely male nor entirely female."
According to the Human Rights Campaign, nonbinary people "may identify as being both a man and a woman, somewhere in between, or as falling completely outside these categories" and that while "many [nonbinary people] also identify as transgender, not all nonbinary people do."
Monáe, who said she has been in both monogamous and polyamorous relationships, also discussed what she looks for in a potential romantic partner, saying, "When I see people, I see your energy first. I don't see, like, how you identify. And I feel like that opens you up to fall in love with any beautiful spirit, you know?"
As for why she decided to discuss her gender identity openly now, Monáe added, "Somebody said, 'If you don't work out the things that you need to work out first before you share it with the world, then you'll be working it out with the world.' That's what I didn't want to do."
"I know who I am," Monáe said. "I've been playing a version of some parts of me, but now I'm owning all of me."
The performer previously tweeted "#IAmNonbinary" in January 2020 but did not elaborate further.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times published Thursday, Monáe said she goes by both she/her and they/them pronouns.
The four-time Grammy nominee previously came out as pansexual in April 2018.
According to GLAAD, pansexual is defined as a terms "used to describe a person who has the capacity to form enduring physical, romantic, and/or emotional attractions to any person, regardless of gender identity."
Monáe released her first book, a collection of science fiction stories, titled "The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer" this month.
