Janelle Monáe on her sexual identity: It is a journey, not a destination

An interesting interview with Janelle Monáe in the Guardian, covering a lot of subjects:

On her sexuality: For me, it is a journey, not a destination, as I gather more information about who I like

On growing up “as a Baptist kid in a very small, Republican state”: You feel, oh my goodness, I don’t know how I even have this conversation with my loved ones when all I’m hearing every Sunday is: if you are not heterosexual, you’re going to hell. And people using the Bible as a whip

On working on her artistic identity: I had time to say no to things that didn’t work for me. I had time to find myself, to prepare myself for some of the obstacles that would come my way, and to understand that my story’s not supposed to be everybody’s story

On systemic racism: My ancestors were forced to come to America and work for free, and the first institution of policing was the slave patrol, which was meant to hunt down and kill black people who had run away. So when we’re screaming, ‘Defund the police’, that’s what we are speaking to: we are reminding people that the police were not meant to protect and serve our community; they were meant to terrorise us. It’s a system built on traumatising black folks