Kehlani

R&B singer/songwriter Kehlani, who rose to fame as a little girl singing with Stevie Wonder on America’s Got Talent, gave Twitter a much-needed lesson in sexual orientation this past April when she spoke about being both queer and poly. She defined queerness (for her) as “not bi, not straight,” and “pansexual.” She said she was into a wide variety of people, such a girls, guys, queer men, nonbinary folks, those who are intersex, and trans peeps. She explained she was the “LEAST attracted to straight men,” and commented that “bisexual men really are little gifts from [G]od.” The declaration should have come as little surprise to anyone following her career. She did, after all, write that song “Honey,” on which she sang, “I like my girls just like I like my honey: sweet.” And she kissed Demi Lovato on stage while on tour with her. (And if you weren’t queer before kissing Demi, you probably do become queer soon after.) In late May, Hayley Kiyoko dropped the extremely queer music video she and Kehlani worked on together, “What I Need,” and in early June, Kehlani showed support to her LGBTQ fans by performing at LA Pride. And, yes, she keeps on making those bold statements about sexual orientation, no matter what you think about it: “There’s always this need to fill that binary outline out,” she recently told Paper. “That’s what stops a lot of people from stepping out and exploring their queerness — especially women — because they get nervous about what role they’ll be ‘taking on.’ Once they get through that, the world just opens up.” —GH