Kehlani Claps Back at Critics Deriding Her for Being Queer & Pregnant

When R&B superstar Kehlani announced that she was pregnant last month, she certainly didn't expect the backlash she received from some LGBTQ fans that spent so long building her up.

With songs citing her relationships with both men and women, the openly queer 23-year-old has built a huge following among the LGBTQ community, even dubbed a queer icon. But when she showed off her baby bump on Twitter, a small collection of fans quickly voiced their disapproval. 

"I’ve gotten everything from 'I thought she was a lesbian' to 'she was using queerness to promote her career, then went and betrayed us with a man' to 'her baby father is just a sperm donor," she told Nylon. 

None of those are the case. Kehlani, who is currently about five months pregnant, has previously said on Queen Radio that she planned to conceive the child with her partner, later revealed to be her guitarist Javie Young-White, who she feels will "understand her better than any man ever has since he is a bisexual man himself."

In the interview, Kehlani has a few words for her haters and goes on to speak candidly about them, the queer icon status she never asked for, and how she sees herself as an expecting queer musician.

Read below:

"One, I never identified as a lesbian. I’ve always been pansexual. My first mixtape included songs about males, and songs about women. My first album had songs about a nonbinary ex, an intersex ex, and male/female exes. I don’t always make it a point to identify pronouns in the music because that isn’t the focal point. I think what steered everyone in the direction of categorizing my sexuality (which is still really narrow-minded) was my song 'Honey,' and a couple of the features I’d done after.

I don’t make music with an agenda. I make songs directly from the time in my life I am inspired, meaning it follows the actual real timeline of my life. I wrote 'Honey' about the woman I was in love with. I wanted her to feel special—she was a painter and expressed her feelings toward me a lot in her art, and I did the same. I’m just glad people enjoyed it.

I never woke up and decided to be the 'queer icon' of the century. Having so much attention on me outside my art already gives me enough anxiety. I have always said, and will always say, there are people out there in this community fighting for equality in realer ways than making songs about it and performing at events like I am, and those are the 'queeroes.' Those are the ones who deserve to be awarded and constantly highlighted. I do appreciate the love I’ve received for just being myself, but, believe me, I’m 80 percent just as uncomfortable with being the front page of any movement or the face/poster child of anything as a lot of people are with me being it. I’m here to make music, take care of my family, do whatever for those I can help, and love.

I also saw a lot of discomfort with the use of the word 'queer,' hinting that it’s used for folks to run away from identifying with a more 'solidified' term like bi/lesbian/gay/pan. My response is: Whatever makes you feel your safest, in your truest identity, you should identify as such without being policed by the same community you are supposed to feel most safe with. A lot of queer youth I know feel extremely validated by the term 'queer.' You deserve to be believed, taken for what you say you are, and not shamed for it. Always open to learning though."

Kehlani is beyond excited for parenthood and can't wait to welcome her baby girl into the world. "My overall dreams and goals for my life are to love to the highest limits one can experience love. The highest forms of happiness, and graciousness. I believe creating life is one of the highest forms of love! I’m accomplishing one of my biggest goals as we speak."

Check out the full Nylon interview here.