JoJo Siwa Doesn’t Care if She Lost Fans After Coming Out
JoJo Siwa came out publicly almost three years ago now. The former Dance Moms star is now speaking candidly about what it has been like for her as queer. In the…
Jojo Siwa attends the 2023 Industry Dance Awards and Cancer Benefit Show at Avalon Hollywood & Bardot on October 18, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Steven Simione/Getty ImagesJoJo Siwa came out publicly almost three years ago now. The former Dance Moms star is now speaking candidly about what it has been like for her as queer. In the debut episode of the reality star’s new podcast, Siwa, 20, reflected on how she decided to tell her fans that she was a part of the LGBTQIA+ community. While on the phone with her girlfriend at the time, Siwa recalled telling her, "'I think I wanna come out to the world.' I posted this picture and threw it on my Instagram Story, and that’s how I confirmed it … I didn’t think twice about it."
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The reaction, she said, was largely positive. However, that didn't nullify how there were still plenty of people who were not happy that Siwa was sharing her identity publicly. "There was also a lot of negativity, and I did lose a lot," she continued. "I didn’t care, and I still don’t care about the things I lost and the people that I lost and if I lost a chunk of fans because it’s who I am."
It's 'Who I Am'
Further explaining her point, the "Boomerang" singer proclaimed that she had built her career off of “being genuine,” and if her fans couldn’t deal with her sexuality, then they were more than welcome to leave. "If you didn’t like me because [one day] I was straight, and [the next day] I was gay, then you’re not meant to like me anyways," she said. "I just try to really be genuine, really be who I am."
This isn't the first time Siwa has talked about the backlash to her coming out. Over the summer, Siwa said in an interview that a number of corporations decided to “blackball” her from working with them because of her sexuality. “I had a lot of people of corporations [who] told me that I made the wrong choice and that I shouldn’t have come out,” she said at the time. “[They said] that I shouldn’t tell my young demographic that I’m gay.”
Siwa is currently starring as a contestant on the second season of the Fox reality series Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.
"Pansexuality" is when someone experiences physical, romantic, and/or emotional attraction to a person regardless of their gender identity, per GLAAD. This is one of several terms under the bi+ umbrella.
While there are many overlaps between pansexuality and bisexuality, the official definitions differ in their approach to gender. The prefix pan- means "all," while bisexuality is the attraction to multiple gender identities. According to Stonewall, there may be individuals who align with the way pansexuality is defined yet identify with the term bisexuality. Others may use pansexual and bisexual interchangeably.
Like bisexuality, pansexuality is often associated with negative connotations. Often, those who identify with being labeled as an experimentation phase or to be a stepping stone to being gay. However, according Stonewall, the term pansexual has been included in the Oxford English Dictionary since the early 1900s and has been used in its current definition since at least the late 1960s.
LGBTQ+ people have long been using a range of different terms to describe their identities. As we've progressed as far as social acceptance and social media, the terms are more widespread.
Take a look below at 11 celebrities who are pansexual:
Miley Cyrus
Arturo Holmes/Getty ImagesShe recalled in 2016 when she realized she was pansexual in an interview with 'Variety.' Cyrus said, "I went to the LGBTQ center here in LA, and I started hearing these stories. 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. Even though I may seem very different, people may not see me as neutral as I feel. But I feel very neutral. I think that was the first gender-neutral person I’d ever met. Once I understood my gender more, which was unassigned, then I understood my sexuality more. I was like, 'Oh — that’s why I don’t feel straight and I don’t feel gay. It’s because I’m not.'”
JoJo Siwa
Jerod Harris/Getty ImagesSiwa told 'People' in 2021, "Technically, I would say that I am pansexual because that's how I have always been my whole life is just, like, my human is my human."
Demi Lovato
Alex Goodlett/Getty Images for Operation SmileShe told Joe Rogan in 2021 that she identified as pansexual. "I'm so fluid now, and a part of the reason why I am so fluid is because I was super closeted off."
Brendon Urie
Frazer Harrison/Getty ImagesHe told 'Paper Magazine' in 2018, "I'm married to a woman and I'm very much in love with her but I'm not opposed to a man because to me, I like a person. Yeah I guess you could qualify me as pansexual because I really don't care. If a person is great, then a person is great. I just like good people, if your heart's in the right place. I'm definitely attracted to men. It's just people that I am attracted to. I guess this is me coming out as pansexual."
Janelle Monáe
Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for Vanity FairFor Rolling Stone's 2018 cover issue, the musician revealed she identified with being pansexual after she read up about it. "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.”
Bella Thorne
John Phillips/Getty ImagesShe told 'ABC News' what pansexual means to her in 2019: "You like beings. You like what you like. It doesn't have to be a girl, or a guy, or…you know, a he, a she, a this, or that. It's literally, you like personality, like you just like a being."
Asia Kate Dillon
Frazer Harrison/Getty ImagesIn 2019, the actor, who is non-binary told the 'Cut' they are "a human being who is attracted to other human beings.”
Kesha
Phillip Faraone/Getty ImagesIn 2022, Kesha took to Instagram to talk about her sexuality. "I'm not gay. I'm not straight. I don't know what I am. I love people. I love people because we are all our own little consciousness journeys, dancing around the sun." In an interview with 'Seventeen' in 2013 she said, "I don’t love just men. I love people. It’s not about a gender. It’s just about the spirit that exudes from that other person you’re with."
Keke Palmer
Noam Galai/Getty ImagesShe opened up about sexuality and gender while being honored by the Los Angeles LGBT Center in 2023. “I’m so grateful to be here today to be embraced by a community that I’ve always felt accepted by and a part of. I’ve always been my own person. Sexuality and identity for me has always been confusion. You know, it’s, ‘I never felt straight enough. I never felt gay enough. And I never felt woman enough. I never felt man enough.’ You know, I always felt like I was a little bit of everything.” Last year, Keke said, "I’m definitely in the middle of the scale. I’m definitely even across the board. I feel like love is love, life is life. Do your thing, live you life. I feel that way.”
Cara Delevingne
Arturo Holmes/Getty ImagesShe told 'Variety' in 2020, "I always will remain, I think, pansexual. However one defines themselves, whether it’s ‘they’ or ‘he’ or ‘she,’ I fall in love with the person — and that’s that. I’m attracted to the person.”
Wayne Brady
Frazer Harrison/Getty ImagesThe 'Let’s Make a Deal' host told People in August 2023: “I am pansexual." He added with a laugh: “Bisexual — with an open mind!” He shares daughter, Maile, 20, with ex-wife Mandie Taketa. Along with Taketa’s partner, Jason Fordham, the four of them are filming a reality series about their blended family, set to premiere on Hulu in 2024. Taketa and Fordham welcomed a new baby in 2021, and Brady is considered a co-parent.
