“Being a girl isn’t what I hate, it’s the box that I get put into.”
Miley Cyrus, known for dying her armpit hair and wearing nipple tassels, says she doesn’t want to be defined by any one gender.
The 22-year-old singer was being interviewed by Associated Press to promote the new foundation she has created to help LGBT and homeless youth when she addressed her gender.
“I didn’t want to be a boy,” she said.
“I kind of wanted to be nothing. I don’t relate to what people would say defines a girl or a boy, and I think that’s what I had to understand: Being a girl isn’t what I hate, it’s the box that I get put into.”
Cyrus also said not all her past relationships have been with “straight, heterosexual” males, but didn’t elaborate.
Cyrus’s revelation about her gender is an important moment for the LGBTQ community, which she strongly supports.
The charity she has begun, called The Happy Hippie Foundation, came about after she took a homeless youth named Jesse to the MTV VMAs last year and together they raised over $200,000 for homeless youth in America.
For more on Miley Cyrus, click through the gallery of her face below. Post continues after gallery.
“I’m the one that can fix it,” Cyrus told Good Morning America.
“I think I’ve been able to identify with it just because I’ve never thought of myself as, ‘I’m a girl and so I can’t do this, or I can do this, or you’ve got to be a boy to do that.’ I feel completely like I’m not tied to a gender or to an age. I feel like an infinite cosmic thing, and that’s what I want people to feel… Forty percent of homelessness is really focused on [the LGBT community], because, I think, of the lack of acceptance.”
The foundation’s mission statement is “Rallying young people to fight injustice facing homeless youth, LGBT youth and other vulnerable populations.”
Cyrus says she chose to focus on homelessness because it’s a huge problem that many ignore, or don’t understand.
“It’s something that we all see every single day. It’s like the birds chirping—we just ignore it because we’re so used to it. You’re looking down at your phone, but you never look at someone who’s sitting there and needs help.”
Cyrus is using her talent and her famous connections to raise awareness for the charity – the singer has started a series of backyard concert videos and is uploading these onto social media alongside donation buttons.
The Happy Hippie Foundation’s Facebook page has garnered over 40,000 likes in just a couple of weeks. You can find out more by visiting the foundation’s page.
For more on Miley Cyrus, homelessness and the LGBTQ community…
“Miley Cyrus has been called ‘disgusting’ for broaching this topic. And that’s not ok.”
It’s one of the hardest parts of being a homeless woman. But it’s rarely discussed.
Humanising homelessness: “My father isn’t an issue. He is a person; a human being.”
‘Yes, the LGBTI community has an agenda: To keep kids safe from bullying.’
Top Comments
It's nice to know that such a famous person is non-binary. This will help raise awareness to the lesser-known identities under the LGBT umbrella.
I get sick of people saying this girl is just a train wreck. She's not. She's thoughtful and she's honest. She's a young woman who's trying to find herself and she is trying to help the world with her influence and money. She also knows how to have fun without getting arrested or totally trashed. She likes to stick her tongue out, smoke hash and wear skimpy clothes. Big deal. I'm not a fan of her music, but I don't think that she's such a bad role model for young people. I have admiration for Miley Cyrus.