8 brilliant, bold and brave pansexual people changing the world by living their best life
Janelle Monae, Miley Cyrus and Yungblud are all pansexual. (Getty)
Pansexual Pride Day (December 8) is all about celebrating the pansexual people who are living loud, proud and increasing visibility for an often misunderstood part of the LGBT+ community.
In 2020, “pansexual meaning” was one of the most Googled LGBT+ search terms, showing that widespread understanding and acceptance of pansexual folk has a long way to go.
But pansexual public figures and celebrities are doing their part to change this, showing that people who love people regardless of gender are proud and here to stay.
Miley Cyrus. (Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)
Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus confirmed that she identifies as pansexual in a 2015 interview with Elle, and in the years since has been open about what pansexuality means to her.
In 2019 she told Vanity Fair: “A big part of my pride and my identity is being a queer person.
“What I preach is: People fall in love with people, not gender, not looks, not whatever. What I’m in love with exists on almost a spiritual level.”
At the time, she was married to Liam Hemsworth, and worked hard to combat pan-erasure and bi-erasure in speaking out about her queer identity and being in a relationship with a man.
She said: “We’re redefining what it looks like for someone that’s a queer person like myself to be in a hetero relationship… Like, who gives a f**k if he’s a guy, if I’m a girl, or if he was a woman – who gives a f**k?”
Janelle Monáe at the premiere of ‘Queen & Slim’. (Wireimage/ Getty/ Tommaso Boddi))
Janelle Monáe
Janelle Monáe spoke about her sexuality for the first time in an interview with Rolling Stone in 2017, and has said that she identifies with both the labels pansexual and bisexual.
Monáe has spoken her fear of coming out, especially as someone who is Black and queer.
She told them in 2019: “To be young, queer, and Black in America means that you can be misunderstood.
“I just hope we can get to a point where Black women who don’t identify as strictly heterosexual are normalised.”
Demi Lovato performs onstage during Global Citizen Live, September, 2021. (Getty for Global Citizen/ Rich Fury)
Demi Lovato
Demi Lovato has had two coming out moments this year, telling the world they are pansexual in March, before coming out as non-binary in May.
Speaking about their sexuality in an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, they explained: “I’m so fluid now, and a part of the reason why I am so fluid is because I was super closeted off.”
Confirming they identify as pansexual, they added, in a dig at anti-LGBT+ religious conservatives, that they were “part of the alphabet mafia and proud”.
Yungblud performs at Le Trabendo on November 17, 2019 in Paris, France. (David Wolff – Patrick/Redferns)
Yungblud
Pansexual and polyamorous pop-punk singer Yungblud has been clear about why, for him, it is important to “own these labels”.
In an interview with Hunger magazine, he said: “It doesn’t matter what genitalia you’ve got or what you identify as, if I love you, I love you and that’s it, and that’s [something] I’ve struggled with my whole life, because I didn’t know what I was.
“I couldn’t quite put a label on it, then I learned about pansexuality from magazines and the internet and I think it’s so beautiful that sexuality has really come to the forefront of my generation’s mind, that you can be beautifully yourself.
“What I want to encourage with my message is that no matter what you are, no matter how you want to express yourself, you are individual and you are beautiful just by simply existing. I wanted to make a stand so that if anyone’s out there scared to come out, they will come out.”
Jazz Jennings, a YouTube personality, spokesmodel, television personality and LGBT activist. (WireImage/ Anthony DelMundo)
Jazz Jennings
Trans 21-year-old Jazz Jennings came out as pansexual on her YouTube channel when she was 14 years old.
Showing other teenagers that there was zero shame in being authentically themselves, she told her viewers in a Q&A: “I’m pansexual and I like people for their personality.
“I don’t care if they’re gay, bi, trans, whatever they are.”
Brendan Urie of Panic! at the Disco attends the 2018 MTV EMAs. (Corbis via Getty/ Stephane Cardinale)
Brendon Urie
Panic! at the Disco frontman Brendon Urie came out as pansexual in 2018, in response to a question on rejecting stereotypes about masculinity in an interview with Paper Magazine.
Just like Miley Cyrus, Urie was clear that no one should make assumptions about a person’s sexuality, even if they are in a straight-passing relationship.
He said: “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.”
Cara Delevingne at the 2021 Met Gala wearing a bulletproof-esque vest bearing the phrase “Peg the Patriarchy”. (AFP via Getty/ ANGELA WEISS)
Cara Delevingne
British model and actor Cara Delevingne has described sexual orientation as bisexual, pansexual, fluid and a “swinging pendulum”, showing the world that labels, and sexuality itself, don’t have to remain static.
She told Variety last year: “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.”
The LGBT+ suicide prevention charity The Trevor Project has described Delevingne’s openness as “instrumental” for many young people.
Sam Gold, the organisation’s talent engagement manager, told the publication: “We hear from young people every day who draw inspiration from their idols like Cara.”
Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran came out as pansexual. (Nina Lecourt)
Layla Moran
Layla Moran made history last year as the first when she came out, becoming the first openly pansexual MP in the UK.
The Lib Dem MP for Oxford West and Abingdon told PinkNews: “Pansexuality, to me, means it doesn’t matter about the physical attributions of the person you fall in love with, it’s about the person themselves.
“It doesn’t matter if they’re a man or a woman or gender non-conforming, it doesn’t matter if they identify as gay or not. In the end, these are all things that don’t matter – the thing that matters is the person, and that you love the person.”
