kehlani
Kehlani is a singer.
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  • Kehlani opened up about her privilege as someone who can pass as straight and cisgender.
  • She also said she'll be raising her daughter in a queer environment with inclusive books and movies.
  • The singer, who is "on the non-binary scale" recently came out as a lesbian and uses she/they pronouns.
  • Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Kehlani recently opened up about the privileges she has as a queer person who can pass as straight during an interview with The Advocate.

The 25-year-old singer has been rule-breaking and incorporating queer narratives into mainstream music for the past few years, but acknowledges that she has never actually been pressured to "come out" in her private life because of how she presents herself.

"I have a lot of privilege," she told the publication. "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."

"I didn't even really have to come out in my private life," she added. "That's all privilege and I think that there are quite a few artists who were truly at the forefront but weren't able to make the strides that I was able to make being 100 percent myself because of the way they present and the biases and the phobias of the American public and the world. I've been lucky, super lucky."

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Kehlani added that she plans to raise her 2-year-old daughter Adeya Nomi, who she shares with guitarist Javie Young-White, in a queer environment.

"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 said. "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.'"

The "Honey" singer, who uses both she and they pronouns, also recently came out as a nonbinary lesbian.

During an Instagram Live in April 2020, she told followers, "You want to know what's new about me? I finally know I'm a lesbian" - which is different from what she's identified with in the past.

In October 2018, during an Instagram Live, she told her followers that while she's been given the opportunity to represent the LGBTQ community, she never identified as a lesbian. The following month, she also told Nylon, "I never identified as a lesbian. I've always been pansexual."

In a July 2020 interview with Diva Magazine, she spoke about being gender fluid and gave her thoughts on queerness.

"I'm definitely on the non-binary scale. But I still prefer and am totally fine with the pronoun 'she,'" she told the publication. "My energy has always been extremely fluid between masculine and feminine so that's why I use 'queer,' and also, queer is inclusive to non-binary people."

The coming-out video was shared less than two weeks after she briefly opened up to her followers about how introspective the last six months have been for her.

"The last 6 months have been the most deeply uprooting, personal, introspective months of my life. The last 2 of that 6 have been the most beautiful. One day i'll share. Until then, I'm savoring every little bit [honey pot emoji] mmm mmm mmm," she tweeted on March 26.

Read the original article on Insider