Miley Cyrus, Bella Thorne, Cara Delevingne – 10 LGBT Hollywood and music stars who identify as pansexual
From Janelle Monáe to Brendon Urie, meet 10 stars who identify as pansexual.
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Christine and the Queens
French singer Christine and the Queens – real name Héloïse Adelaïde Letissier – revealed her pansexuality in a BBC interview for the “100 Women” series in 2016. The French pop star said that her pansexuality “means that I can fall in love with someone regardless of their gender, regardless of how they define themselves. I don’t really see that as an obstacle, as a definition.” Explaining why she does not use the term bisexual, she continued, “Bisexual is still being binary. I’m just trying to escape any labels.”
Janelle Monáe
Musician and actress Janelle Monáe, best known for her roles in films such as Moonlight and Hidden Figures, came out publicly as a “queer black woman in America” in April 2018, specifically as pansexual. In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Janelle admitted she had been in relationships with both men and women and that at first she identified as bisexual. “Later I read about pansexuality and was like, ‘Oh, these are things that I identify with too,’” she said. “I’m open to learning more about who I am.”
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Cara Delevingne
Bella Thorne
Actress Bella Thorne revealed that she identifies as pansexual on Good Morning America in 2019. Thorne – who made US$2 million in one week from her newly opened OnlyFans account – first came out as bisexual in 2016, but after she found out what pansexual meant she felt that the description better fit her sexuality. She said: “It’s literally, you like personality, you just like a being. If I just like it, I like it!”
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Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus first realised she wasn’t straight when she was “in the fifth or sixth grade”. When she realised she was pansexual, Cyrus told Variety, “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. 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.’”
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Joe Lycett
British comedian Joe Lycett once described himself as gay, then as bisexual, but he now prefers the term pansexual. He often talks about his pansexuality during his stand-up routines. In 2015, Lycett told Gay Times magazine: “I identify more now as pan. I didn’t know what that was until about a year or so ago. I was doing a gig and there was someone who described herself as heteroromantic pansexual, which means she has relationships with men, but she is sexually attracted to all genders. Gender is fluid and I think it’s absolutely fascinating.”
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Courtney Act
Drag star Shane Gilberto Jenek – better known by stage name Courtney Act – is loud and proud about being pansexual. The RuPaul’s Drag Race star explained to Attitude magazine in 2018, “The reason I identify as pansexual [rather than gay] is not because I wander around the street looking at women thinking I wanna bang ‘em, it’s because I’ve had sexual and emotional experiences with women, and I don’t count that out as being a possibility.” Jenek prefers the pronouns she/her when talking about Courtney Act, but the pronouns he/him otherwise.
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Brendon Urie
Panic! at the Disco singer Brendon Urie, who has been married to his wife Sarah since 2013, has spoken openly about being pansexual. In a 2018 interview with Paper, Urie said, “Yeah I guess you could qualify me as pansexual because I really don‘t care. If a person is great, then a person is great. I just like good people, if your heart’s in the right place. I’m definitely attracted to men. It’s just people that I am attracted to. I guess this is me coming out as pansexual.”
Tess Holliday
After reflection on her sexuality, model Tess Holliday came out as pansexual in 2019. Although in January this year the plus-sized beauty revealed that she and husband Nick have been living apart, the couple have been married since 2015 and have two children, Bowie Juniper and Rylee. Speaking to Nylon, Tess said: “I’ve been thinking a lot about my relationship to my own queerness, and I think the word pansexual speaks to me more than bi does.”
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Asia Kate Dillon
Orange is the New Black and Billions star Asia Kate Dillon identifies as non-binary and prefers to use the pronouns they/them. Dillon also identifies as pansexual, saying to The Huffington Post in 2017: “Well, from the time I came to understand sex and sexual orientation, and all of that, I’ve identified as pansexual and I’ve always felt like I had the spiritual, emotional, physical capability of being attracted to any gender.” They also told The Cut in 2019 that they are “a human being who is attracted to other human beings”.
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They’re starring in hit TV series and films like Orange is the New Black, RuPaul’s Drag Race and Hidden Figures, they’re fronting bands like Panic! at the Disco and earning US$2 million a week on OnlyFans – meet the Hollywood and music world’s pansexual stars