LOS ANGELES, Oct 12 — Miley Cyrus has opened up about how she struggled with her sexuality and how she finally came out as a pansexual.
In a recent interview for Variety’s Power of Women issue, Cyrus revealed that she first battled with her feelings when she was in school. These struggles with her own identity are what led to her being such a passionate activist for the LGBTQ
“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. I don’t ever think about someone being a boy or someone being a girl.
“Also, my nipple pasties and s**t never felt sexualised to me. My eyes started opening in the fifth or sixth grade. My first relationship in my life was with a chick. I grew up in a very religious Southern family.”
“The universe has always given me the power to know I’ll be OK. Even at that time, when my parents didn’t understand, I just felt that one day they are going to understand.”
Cyrus went on to say that she didn’t really understand her identity until meeting other people who thought the way she did.
“I went to the LGBTQ centre here in LA, and I started hearing these stories. 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.
“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’.”
