TORONTO — Singer and actress Miley Cyrus is speaking out about her struggle with gender identity and why she doesn’t want to label her sexuality.
“I didn’t want to be a boy,” the former Hannah Montana star explained. “I kind of wanted to be nothing.”
Cyrus told Out she doesn’t relate to traditional gender definitions.
“That’s what I had to understand: Being a girl isn’t what I hate, it’s the box that I get put into.”
On Wednesday, Cyrus posted “NOTHING can/will define me! Free to be EVERYTHING!!!” on her Instagram page.
Cyrus told Out she is haunted by the suicide of transgender teenager Leelah Alcorn.
“The media moves too fast, she said. “I didn’t want another story like that to be a little blurb that people hear about and then it just goes away.”
In an interview with The Associated Press, Cyrus called Bruce Jenner a “hero” for shining light on transgender issues.
She also revealed that not all of her relationships have been “straight, heterosexual” ones.
In a Facebook Q&A with fans, she said of her sexuality: “I NEVER WANT TO LABEL MYSELF! I AM READY TO LOVE ANYONE THAT LOVES ME FOR WHO I AM! I AM OPEN!”
Cyrus told TIME: “I’m not hiding my sexuality. For me, I don’t want to label myself as anything. We love putting people in categories, but what I like sexually isn’t going to label me as a person.”
She told the magazine she’s had boyfriends and girlfriends — “and there are times where I just love being with myself and don’t want to give part of myself away to someone else.”
Cyrus, who spent part of her childhood in Toronto while her father Billy Ray Cyrus starred in the TV series Doc, announced this week she is launching the Happy Hippie Foundation in support of vulnerable youth.
“Living a life untrue to who you really are makes life unbearable for human beings with feelings and emotions — like love, maybe the greatest one of them,” the 22-year-old star wrote in a message on the Happy Hippie website.
“Pointless judgment and its consequences are unfortunately way too common. All humans have valid feelings and rights!”
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