Janelle Monae reflects on media coverage of her pansexuality: 'I hope people find courage in the story'

Sign up to Roisin O’Connor’s free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music Get our Now Hear This email for free Get our Now Hear This email for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. She said she had previously identified as bisexual but had later learned about pansexuality, which is defined as “anyone attracted to people of all genders or sexes, or regardless of sex or gender”. “Yeah, that happens”, Monae told a fan who called the headline and others like it, “reductive”: “I'm also free to let that slide off my back. “In this case, I think that there are a lot of people who may find courage in the story.” ​She continued: “I'm not in the business of clickbait and what makes people click on something. I'm just trying to be honest and hope that it resonates with the people it's supposed to resonate with.” The interview prompted a spike in web searches for the term “pansexual”, with the Merriam Webster dictionary reporting an 11,000% increase in people looking up the definition.