Janelle Monáe has publicly come out as non-binary. Monáe was a featured guest on the most recent episode of Jada Pinkett Smith’s Red Table Talk talk show, and addressed their gender identity. “I’m non-binary, so I just don’t see myself as a woman solely,” Monáe said. “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.” Monáe went on to clarify that they “will always, always stand with women. I will always stand with Black women. But I just see everything that I am, beyond the binary.”

In 2020, Monáe tweeted out the hashtag #IAmNonbinary, but soon after said in an interview that it was “in support of Non-Binary Day and to bring more awareness to the community.” But during Red Table Talk, Monáe talked about the process of coming out to their family and friends.

“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,” they 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.”

Back in 2018, Monáe came out as pansexual.

Here’s the full Red Table Talk episode:

Monáe just released a new book, The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories Of Dirty Computer.