Dolly Parton has helped members of her family who are gay or lesbian come out.
The 70-year-old country music legend – who has a huge fan base amongst the LGBT community – had no idea what it meant to have feelings for someone of the same sex at first, but she did everything she could to support her homosexual relatives by nurturing and embracing them.
She explained: "In my early days we did not know (what gay was). It didn’t take me long to know that people were different and that was always fine with me.
"I was different too, and I embraced and accepted them and I knew them. I knew them well.
"Later on, I did find out I have many gays and lesbians in my own family. We accept them, we embrace them."
The ‘Jolene’ hitmaker also thinks it important that the LGBT community aren’t made to feel "separate" or "different" from everybody else.
She told PrideSource:"Oh, there are some in the mountains who still don’t know quite what to make of it or how they should feel about it, but they’re ours and they’re who they are and we know they’re wonderful and they’re like us.
"We love the fact that they are who they are and we nurture that. We don’t try to make them feel separate or different.
We embrace it."
Dolly – who is married to Carl Dean – previously said she thinks she has a strong following of gay people because she loves and accepts them for who they are.
Asked what she attributes her large gay following to, she previously said: "They know that I completely love and accept them, as I do all people.
"I’ve struggled enough in my life to be appreciated and understood.
"I’ve had to go against all kinds of people through the years just to be myself.
"I think everybody should be allowed to be who they are, and to love who they love. I don’t think we should be judgmental.
"Lord, I’ve got enough problems of my own to pass judgment on somebody else."
Dolly Parton helped gay family members come out
