The singer and actor, who goes by they/their and she/her pronouns, shared the news on Red Table Talk and said faith played a major role. “I’m non-binary, so I just don’t see myself as a woman solely,” Monáe told hosts Willow Smith, Jada Pinkett-Smith and Adrienne Banfield-Norris. “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.”
In 2020, Monáe tweeted using the hashtag #IAmNonbinary, which sparked conversation around her gender identity, however she later stated the tweet was in “support of Non-Binary Day and to bring more awareness to the community.” Now, Monáe reflects on this moment and she simply wasn't ready to share this information with the world yet.
“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 said. “That’s what I didn’t want to do. So I thought I needed to have all my answers correct, I don’t want to say the wrong thing. “And also I hadn’t had the necessary conversations with my family,” she continued. “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. […] 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.” In 2018, Monáe came out as pansexual
