JoJo Siwa says ‘being called a gay icon’ is ‘the biggest honor
JoJo Siwa is trying to get a romantic scene cut from one of her upcoming films, saying that it doesn't authentically represent her after coming out as LGBTQ.
While speaking with Entertainment Weekly about the impact that her announcement had on her personal and professional lives, the 18-year-old revealed that she feels more free to be exactly who she knew she was since she was young. But before opening up about her sexuality and her relationship with girlfriend Kylie Prew, Siwa filmed a kissing scene for an upcoming film Bounce that she now hopes to get removed.
"I'm madly in love and I do not want to kiss another human, especially because it's a man," she told the publication.
The movie is a film adaptation of a novel by Megan Shull and is said to have an uplifting message. For Siwa, however, her main concern is remaining authentic to who she is, especially for her young audience who might struggle to separate JoJo Siwa from the character that she plays.
"That's what they look at me as, not some character, not some fictional thing. And so it's going to be a little weird," she said. "I'm not about it. I'm trying to get it pulled so bad. It'll happen. It'll get pulled."
Siwa also got candid about her previous boyfriend whom she revealed to her online audience at the time that they were dating. "I had the world convinced. I really did. I think I even had myself convinced, honestly. ... I gave it a shot and I was like, 'This isn't for me.'" Still, there were "signs" that Siwa was a member of the LGBTQ community from long before she came out.
"I mean, I wore a rainbow on the top of my head almost every day of my life," she said, referring to her signature hair bows. "And any time I could have anything rainbow, I would get rainbow. June's my favorite month to shop because of all the Pride clothes."
Although Siwa maintained that her public coming out was "so unplanned," she revealed that she had some conversations in the works about shifting her focus in the studio. "About a year ago, I started having all these music meetings just for fun, just getting my head where I want to go. And I told the producers, 'I want to create gay pop, and I want to have a concert for the girls and for the gays.' Turns out a year later, I am very much so gay," she said.
And although she didn't know how her fan base would react to the news, Siwa said that she feels more welcomed by the world than ever before.
"The world right now is in such a great place with me. ... There was a phase where a lot of the world hated me, like teenagers. They hated me. And I think now we're homies and we're cool again," she said. "Being called a gay icon, honestly, I think is the biggest honor."
Read more from Yahoo Life:
The Teletubbies embrace Pride, more than two decades after 'gay' Tinky Winky scandal
Demi Lovato joins other celebrities who have come out as non-binary. Here's what that means.
Busy Philipps on respecting her nonbinary child's pronouns: 'You don't have to understand it'
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