Janelle Monáe shared that they are nonbinary during an appearance Wednesday on the Facebook series "Red Table Talk."
"I'm nonbinary," Monáe, 36, told hosts Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow Smith, and Adrienne Banfield-Norris. "So, I just don't see myself as a woman or — solely. You know, I feel all of my energy."
As Insider previously reported, citing the National Center for Transgender Equality, nonbinary people identify as a gender outside of the traditional categories of male and female, and sometimes identify as neither or a mixture of both genders at the same time.
"I feel like God is so much bigger than the 'he' or the 'she,'" Monáe said during their "Red Table Talk" appearance, adding that "if I am from God, I am everything."
Monáe continued: "I will always stand with women. I will always stand with Black women, but I just see everything that I am beyond the binary."
Monáe added that they see "people's energy" and not how they identify themselves.
"And I feel like that opens you up to fall in love with any beautiful spirit," Monáe said.
When asked by Willow, Pinkett Smith and Will Smith's daughter, what inspired Monáe to come out publicly, they said it came after addressing their sexuality and gender in their personal life.
"If you don't work out the things that you need to work out first with the world, then you'll be working it out with the world," Monáe said. "And that's what I didn't want to do, so I thought I needed to have all my answers correct."
Monáe added that they hadn't had the "necessary conversations" with their family before coming out publicly.
"I've been in monogamous relationships, polyamorous relationships, but I knew I couldn't be little pumpkin," Monáe said, referring to their childhood nickname. "I know who I am. I've been playing a version of some parts of me, but now I'm owning all of me."
In an interview published Thursday, Monáe told Stuart Miller of the Los Angeles Times that they preferred to use the pronouns they/them and she/her.
Monáe previously appeared to come out as nonbinary in January 2020 when they shared a quote tweet with the hashtag "#IAmNonbinary." And in June 2018, Monáe publicly came out as pansexual — pansexuality is when someone is attracted to people of all genders — during an interview with Rolling Stone.
"Being a queer black woman in America, someone who has been in relationships with both men and women – I consider myself to be a free-ass motherfucker," Monáe told Rolling Stone.
Monàe told the outlet that they previously identified as bisexual, "but then later I read about pansexuality and was like, 'Oh, these are things that I identify with too.' I'm open to learning more about who I am."
Representatives for Monáe did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
