Janelle Monáe Reveals They Are Non-Binary

The singer, songwriter and actor Janelle Monáe has recently revealed that they identify as non-binary. Monáe brought the news forward while promoting their upcoming book The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories From Dirty Computer, which mentions their 2018 album Dirty Computer.

“I just don’t see myself as a woman solely,” Monae said in an appearance on Red Table Talk hosted by Jada-Pinkett Smith. “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, but I will always stand with women.”

Monáe had previously come out as identifying as pansexual, and said in a 2020 interview with The Cut that they always “pushed boundaries of gender since the beginning of my career. I feel my feminine energy, my masculine energy, and energy I can’t even explain.”

The singer said they resisted revealing this information publicly because of wanting to discuss it with family first outside of the public eye, but now Monáe has said, “I know who I am. I’ve been playing a version of some parts of me, but now I’m owning all of me. I had to own all of me to really be able to talk about it publicly.”

Monáe most recently contributed a song to the animated streaming music video series We The People in 2021 and was also announced as a cast member of Knives Out 2 that same year.