Janelle Monáe Comes Out as Non-binary on Red Table Talk Interview
Last week, trailblazing global superstar Janelle Monáe appeared on the season premiere of Jada Pinkett Smith’s Red Table Talk. The Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter behind albums like The Electric Lady and Dirty Computer shared an inspiring message for anyone who’s ever felt like they didn’t fit in or can’t be themselves.
“I’m non-binary, so I just don’t see myself as a woman, solely,” Monáe explained early in the conversation. “I feel all of my energy. I feel like God is so much bigger than the ‘he’ or the ‘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 see everything that I am. Beyond the binary.”
In what can only be described as a very personal interview, the also author of “The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer” revealed what inspired them to come out later in life and how they overcame their fears of abandonment and healed from the traumatizing effects that their father’s drug addiction had on them.
In a Los Angeles Times interview published past Thursday, Monáe also noted, “My pronouns are free-ass motherfucker – they/them, her/she.”
For some fans, this information might not come as a surprise. After coming out as pansexual in a cover interview for Rolling Stone in 2018, in 2020 Monáe tweeted “#IAmNonbinary”, but said in later interviews that they had used the hashtag “to bring more awareness to the community.”
As Monáe revealed to the Smiths, back then they weren’t yet ready to fully unveil themselves to the world. “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,’” Monáe answered Willow Smith’s question about what had helped bring them to the point of feeling safe to speak their truth.
“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,” they explained. “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 that I couldn’t be Little Pumpkin. I couldn’t be little Janelle.”
Monáe’s family has always been deeply religious and conservative, they explained. “But I was ready,” they added. “I was like, ‘You know what, if they don’t love me, don’t call me asking for no money.’”
We wish Monáe the absolute best in their new journey.
