Janelle Monáe Comes Out as Nonbinary & 5 More ‘Red Table Talk’ Moments

Janelle Monáe stopped by the "Red Table Talk"

Beloved singer-songwriter Janelle Monáe opened up on Red Table Talk recently about being non-binary, four years after coming out as pansexual on the cover of Rolling Stone.

But her openness about her identity isn’t the only thing we learned during the lengthy chat with Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow Smith, and Adrienne Banfield Norris. Scroll on to learn more!

Coming out to her family as queer wasn’t easy.

Although she has a close relationship with her mother, who came on the show herself later in the episode, Monáe talked about how it was initially difficult to figure out how to come out to her extended family and how she decided to deal with it.

“My whole family is…church, church, church,” she said. “And I’m just like, well, what does it mean to go against your whole family on this thing? But I was ready. I was like, you know what, if they don’t love me, don’t call me asking for no money. You will not get my LGBTQIA+ money. How about that?”

She also added that she suspects some of her relatives are still iffy on her sexuality, but now they know to keep their mouths shut if they want to see that coin.

She hasn’t specified a change to “they/them” pronouns.

Despite coming out as non-binary, throughout the episode, the other hosts and Monáe’s mother, Janet, referred to her with feminine pronouns, and Monáe herself hasn’t yet come forward on social media to say whether she prefers something else. But she did spend time talking about why she feels like the label “woman” no longer fits.

“I’m non-binary, so I just don’t see myself as a woman, solely,” she explained. “I feel all of my energy. I feel like God is so much bigger than the ‘he’ or the ‘she.’ And if I am from God, I am everything. I am everything.”

She was afraid of Prince before they met.

Monáe previously spoke about how Prince both influenced and directly helped her with the sound throughout her second album, Dirty Computer, but although she always looked up to the icon, there used to be some fear mixed in as well — and not for the reasons you might think.

“I actually was scared of Prince though, before I met him. I had a dream that he would chase me around in a purple suit,” she said. “And then when I met him though, it was just like, man, wow… He never allowed his mystery to get in the way of his mentorship. And that’s something I try to live by.”

She can be her own biggest critic.

“I think my biggest heartbreak is when I let myself down about like, when I feel like I’m scared or I didn’t really take in that moment. I’m judging myself,” Monáe admitted. “Why did I pile onto myself? It’s enough people that don’t know me that will have things to say, but I was joining in on that.”

She also shared some sage advice, reminding people that “you are the only one who can fix that. You have to really let it go, and really believe.”

She has a new book coming out that’s set in the same world as 'Dirty Computer.'

The Memory Librarian features five short stories co-authored by different writers, exploring “queer identity, race, and love” and set in a future similar to that of the album-based film Dirty Computer where “deviants” have their identities wiped.

“The cool thing about The Memory Librarian is all of the leads are non-binary, Black, folks in the LGBTQIA community, or women. We don’t just stay down. We get up,” she said. “This is a reminder that in every era, if you try to oppress the marginalized, you will not win.”

Watch the full episode below: