The singer and songwriter Kehlani, who has long identified as queer and bisexual, has announced on Tiktok that she’s a lesbian.
In a video, the Oakland-born artist and a member of the LGBTQ community who goes by she/they pronouns, said that: “I finally know I’m a lesbian. I am gay, gay, gay.”
Reactions to Kehlani coming out
Before the announcement, fans had noticed that Kehlani had posted a short Instagram live video where she said, “You wanna know what’s new about me? I finally know I’m a lesbian!”
She further said, “I just wanted y’all to know that everyone knew but me.” However, fans weren’t sure about her announcement because of the casual tone used.
The 25-year-old Kehlani joked about her family’s reaction to her coming out as a lesbian when she had a heart-to-heart talk with them.
She said, “I feel like, No, I want you to fall on the floor and be like, “congratulations we had no idea”.”
“Everyone’s just like, ‘Duh. You’re the only one who didn’t f—ing know. The f—ing closet was glass.’,” she added.
Kehlani: Is she or isn’t she?
Previously, she had posted a video that she said, “Never have I identified as a lesbian.” However, she had identified as queer.
In an interview with The Advocate, she admitted that her “straight and cisgender presenting” privilege helped with her career.
Kehlani said: “I have a lot of privilege. I think a lot of artists who we talk about and say, ‘Oh, they had to come out or they had to do this,’ a lot of them can’t hide it.”
“A lot of it is very [much] in how they present. It’s tougher for them. It’s tougher for trans artists. It’s tougher for Black gay men. It’s tougher for Black masculine gay women,” she added.
She further said that even though she identified as queer, she was never pressured to come out in her personal life mainly because of the way she presented herself.
Family life of the singer
Kehlani has a 2-year old daughter, Adeya Nomi, with guitarist Javie Young White. She said she’ll raise her daughter “in a progressive, loving environment surrounded by family, where identity won’t ever be an issue.”
“All my friends, all her aunties, uncles, her godparents, everybody is just loudly queer,” Kehlani said.
“Our generation already kind of broke the mold of getting to that point, so I don’t even think our kids are going to think about it as something that they have to identify and differentiate,” she added.
“We’ll be reading queer stories, queer books where the baby has two dads, two moms, two parents who don’t identify as either. Movies that have that,” she explained.
“She sees healthy queer couples. So, I don’t think that she’s going to even think about it as, this is different from normal,” she said.