JoJo Siwa confirms she is a member of the LGBT community: 'I'm the happiest that I've ever been'
JoJo Siwa squashed days of speculation that her social media posts hinted at her sexuality.
On Saturday, the 17-year-old pop artist posted a 15-minute Instagram Live video captioned, “Happy girl! So so happy” with a rainbow emoji.” In the footage, the former Dance Moms star seemed relieved to share her news explaining, “Now that the world gets to see this side of my life, it makes me really, really happy. I’ve been happy in this land for a minute now.”
However, Siwa is choosing to not label her sexuality. “Someone asked ‘What label are you?’ I have thought about this and the reason why I am not ready to say this answer is because I don’t really know...I think humans are awesome, I think humans are really incredible people...and I want to share everything with the world, but I also want to keep things in my life private until they’re ready to be public,” she said.
The news follows days of internet rumors that Siwa had come out, after she posted a TikTok video of herself lip-syncing to Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way,” specifically the lyrics “No matter gay, straight or bi, lesbian, transgendered life, I’m on the right track baby I was born to survive,” followed by an Instagram photo of herself wearing a shirt that read, “BEST. GAY. COUSIN. EVER.”
My cousin got me a new shirt pic.twitter.com/DuHhgRto7b
— JoJo Siwa!🌈??🎀 (@itsjojosiwa) January 22, 2021
In the Saturday video, Siwa referred to the past 48 hours “of the world knowing” as the best she’s experienced and addressed live comments from fans. “This is actually a really good question: How long have you been part of the community, how long have you been whatever you are?’” to which Siwa answered, “I don’t know.”
“I think my whole life, because my whole life...I liked people but I’d never had fallen in love before, but I always believed that my person was just going to be my person,” she said. “And if that person happened to be a boy, great, and if that person happened to be a girl, great.”
She clarified that her sexual orientation was irrelevant to her November breakup to musician Mark Bontempo, whom she began dating in August. "People as teenagers break up, you have a boyfriend or you have a girlfriend when you're 6 years old and you break up with them, you're not with them for forever,” she said in the video. “I was a teenager, I still am a teenager but I think I'm pretty happy now. I'm pretty good now."
However, the news did not surprise Siwa’s parents — according to the singer, her mother has known Siwa’s truth for two years now — and there is no shortage of family support. “Somebody said, ‘Don’t worry, we knew you liked girls.’ Thank you? I think thank you!” she said adding, “I'm the happiest that I've ever been.”
Related: JoJo Siwa board game pulled after accusations of 'inappropriate' material
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