It's a pretty exciting time to be alive, as some celebrities are helping to pave the way
for social advancement - specifically, in this case, those who identify as pansexual.
Western society, or at least the more progressive parts of it, seems to be more open than ever
to accepting the notion that sexuality is a spectrum.
Pansexuality is an interest in men, women, and also people who identify as transgender,
androgynous, or gender fluid.
Representation in the media can only help people understand this approach to love and
attraction - and inspire those who feel similarly to embrace it.
Here are some celebrities who've declared their pansexuality.
Miley Cyrus
One of the first stars whose pansexual status was widely reported also happens to be one
of the most popular and influential celebrities of our time.
In 2016, singer and actress Miley Cyrus came out as pansexual during a lengthy interview
with Variety.
As it turns out, her old Disney Channel show Hannah Montana, a show about split identities
and hiding one's true self, was highly relatable for Cyrus.
She explained,
"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."
Cyrus said she really nailed down both her gender and sexual identity when she visited
an LGBTQ center in Los Angeles, and shared,
"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."
Cyrus explained that she doesn't identify as explicitly male or female, and that she's
attracted to whomever she's attracted to, regardless of where they fall on the gender
spectrum.
Sia
For many years, Sia avoided showing us her face, keeping her mug concealed under bows,
wigs, hair, and hats in an effort to disconnect fame from her art, allowing the music to speak
for itself.
But while Sia may not allow us to see what's on the outside, she's been frank and open
about how she feels on the inside.
Reluctant to identify herself with any particular sexuality label other than, quote, "flexible,"
Sia has seemingly placed herself in the pantheon of famous pansexuals.
She told Faster Louder,
"Before I was actually successful I'd always said I've always dated boys and girls and
anything in between.
I don't care what gender you are, it's about people."
On that note, Sia has been romantically linked to both men and women.
According to the Daily Mail, Sia nearly married her then-girlfriend J.D. Samson in 2010, and,
from 2014 to 2016, she was married to documentary filmmaker Erik Anders Lang.
Sophie B. Hawkins
With a sound that's equally vulnerable and powerful, Sophie B. Hawkins' unique voice
took her to the top of the charts a few times in the early '90s, most notably with the emphatically
titled "Damn!
I Wish I Was Your Lover" and the mid-tempo ballad "As I Lay Me Down."
She was also one of the few out non-heterosexual women in entertainment at the time - or, at
least, the far less woke media of 1992 reported it as such.
In a 1992 interview with The New York Times, Hawkins said she considered herself "omnisexual."
"He said 'are you gay?'
And I said 'I'm omnisexual' and then he didn't even ask me about it.
And then two years later I start reading that other people are saying that."
In the more enlightened year of 2017, Hawkins explained to Fuse what she meant by "omnisexual."
In short, to Hawkins, it means a detachment between sexuality and gender.
She explained,
"I can't make my sexual identity based on another person's gender.
Because even if I was on a desert island and never had sex, I'd be a very sexual person.
I can't say that I'm really inspired by one gender or another."
Janelle Monae
Singer, songwriter, rapper, producer, actress, and model Janelle Monáe is a big deal - and
rightfully so.
Her music is a remarkable, engaging blend of classic R&B, funk, hip-hop, rock, and other
genres that haven't even been invented yet.
She's earned critical praise and millions of fans with songs like "Tightrope," and "Make
Me Feel," while also maintaining a career as an actress, co-starring in the Best Picture-nominated
Hidden Figures, the Best Picture-winning Moonlight, and a 48-minute "emotion picture," a film
accompaniment to her third album, Dirty Computer.
All that and more landed Monáe a cover story with Rolling Stone in 2018, in which the superstar
came out as pansexual.
"It's seeing their spirit, being connected to who their essence is despite what gender
they may be."
Although she's touched on themes of non-binary sexuality in her music before, Monae admitted
that it's been a long journey to get to a place of acceptance and identification.
"If you strip away Janelle Monae as the artist, I'm a black queer American woman."
She also once believed herself to be bisexual, but after reading about pansexuality, she
thought,
"'Oh, these are things that I identify with too.'
I'm open to learning more about who I am."
Jazz Jennings
Reality TV star Jazz Jennings is a spokesmodel, YouTube personality, and author, but all of
that has sprouted from her real gig: being one of the country's leading advocates for
transgender issues.
Remarkably composed and self-assured for her age, she's already achieved quite a lot.
In her memoir Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen, Jennings wrote about feeling like she
was assigned the incorrect gender at birth, and a therapist told her at the age of three
that she was transgender.
She writes,
"I remember feeling this overwhelming sense of relief that there was finally a word that
described me, a girl who had accidentally been born in a boy's body."
Through her various media platforms, Jennings helps others try to bring out their true selves.
And she may help others come out as pansexual, too.
In a 2016 interview with Dazed, Jennings was asked about her sexual preferences, and she
said that she's "still exploring," noting,
"I think I'm physically attracted to guys but I know I could potentially be emotionally
attracted to girls.
I'm just attracted to people for who they are on the inside.
That's what it is to be pansexual, you know."
However, Jennings says she isn't quite ready to put a label on herself because she's never
been in love.
Not yet, anyway.
Angel Haze
It took a surprisingly and frustratingly long time for female rappers to find any purchase
in the musical mainstream.
Rapper Angel Haze is a pioneer in music - and she's also widening society's attitudes about
sexuality.
The Detroit-born Haze burst out in 2012, telling The Source before the release of her third
album Reservation that she's, quote, "the best female rapper in the world."
She proudly rocks a style one might call "androgynous," but which she says is more accurately defined
as, quote, "just me."
That refreshing and confident candor actually seems to be Haze's preferred way to label
herself.
According to MTV, when someone asked her on Twitter if she was gay, she replied in a since-deleted
exchange,
"No.
Lol.
I am whatever I am when I am it."
"I choose to leave myself open.
I'm not gay, I'm not straight, I'm not bisexual.
I don't care.
At the end of the day, I just want someone to connect with, and that's it."
Brooke Candy
Sexuality has long informed musician Brooke Candy's style and sensibility.
According to Vulture, her father was an executive for the explicit magazine Hustler, and as
a young adult, Candy worked as a stripper and a mannequin stylist for Hustler's chain
of stores.
In 2012 and 2013, she started independently releasing her music.
In advance of the release of her 2014 EP Opulence, Candy sat for an interview with Hunger, where
she discussed in detail her personal attitudes and preferences regarding sexuality.
For her, it's all tied in to a grand mass awakening.
She explained,
"I'm really trying to spawn some sort of revolution with our generation because I feel we're being
fed a lot of bulls--t that causes us to be indifferent.
[...] I'm a feminist, I'm young, and I'm gay (though I've now come to the conclusion that
I feel more pansexual)."
Deadpool
This won't ruin either Deadpool movie, but spoiler alert: Deadpool isn't a real person.
But the invincible and hilarious character - portrayed by superstar Ryan Reynolds - identifies
as pansexual in the comic books.
That open attitude toward having partners regardless of gender identity hasn't been
explored as of yet in the blockbuster movies - Deadpool is involved in a long-term, committed
heterosexual relationship with a woman, and it's left at that.
For his part, Reynolds, who had a hand in writing the first Deadpool movie, is game
for exploring this element because he believes it informs the way the character behaves.
He told Variety in 2017,
"What love is to Deadpool may not be what love is to Batman or someone else.
I think that could be played up more.
He's an outsider in every way, shape, and form."
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