Miley Cyrus has opened up about her struggle coming to terms with her gender identity. The 23-year-old singer had recently come out as pansexual.
The former Disney star who is dating Liam Hemsworth, also had past relationships with women. She told Variety: "My whole life, I didn't understand my own gender and my own sexuality. I always hated the word 'bisexual,' because that's even putting me in a box. I don't ever think about someone being a boy or someone being a girl."
"Also, my nipple pasties and shit never felt sexualized to me. My eyes started opening in the fifth or sixth grade. My first relationship in my life was with a chick. I grew up in a very religious Southern family. The universe has always given me the power to know I'll be OK. Even at that time, when my parents didn't understand, I just felt that one day they are going to understand," Cyrus added.
The Voice judge revealed when she first identified herself as pansexual. She said: "I think when I figured out what it was. I went to the LGBTQ center here in L.A., 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."
