Katy Perry on Having Same-Sex Attractions While Growing Up Religious

katy perry hrc

Katy Perry, known for singing about kissing girls, wasn’t always as openly adventurous as we thought. She shares about how she suppressed her same-sex attraction while growing up in a religious family.

While accepting the National Equality Award at the Human Rights Campaign gala, Katy became candid about being attracted to women. “I speak my truths, and I paint my fantasies into these little bite-size pop songs. For instance, ‘I kissed a girl and I liked it.’ Truth be told, I did more than that,” she says.

When “I Kissed a Girl” came out in 2008, Katy was asked numerous times whether she did kiss a girl. She admitted to it but said that it never went further. She did, however, open up about having crushes on girls as a teenager.

Katy continued her speech by recounting the times she would feel conflicted because of her religious upbringing. “How was I going to reconcile that with a gospel-singing girl raised in youth groups that were pro-conversion camps?” she adds that she spent her adolescent years trying to “pray the gay away in Jesus camps.”

“What I did know was I was curious, and even then I knew sexuality wasn’t as black and white as this [Rasario] dress,” she says. “And honestly, I haven’t always gotten it right, but in 2008, when that song came out, I knew that I started a conversation, and a lot of the world seemed curious enough to sing along, too.”

She also thanked the music industry for making her more aware of LGBT issues. “[My work] introduced me to people outside my bubble, and my bubble started to burst. These people were nothing like I had been taught to fear. They were the most free, strong, kind, and inclusive people I have ever met.”

Good on Katy for speaking out. Let this inspire people to embrace their sexuality and not let fear stop them from being their true self.

[Glamour]

 

Photo courtesy of E! Online

Follow Preen on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and Viber

Read more...