Kehlani is disappointed by her fans’ reaction to her pregnancy.
The 23-year-old singer – who identifies as pansexual – revealed last month that she is expecting her first child and was disheartened to receive such negative messages after making the big announcement, with some accusing her of "betraying" her LGBTQ fans.
She said: "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.’ I never identified as a lesbian. I’ve always been pansexual. My first mixtape included songs about males, and songs about women. 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. 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."
Kehlani – who is having the baby with her guitarist Javie Young-White – has also called on her fans to identify how ever they feel most comfortable.
She added to Nylon magazine: "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.’"
Kehlani disappointed with fans’ reaction to her pregnancy
