Janelle Monáe will headline New York City Pride 2020. (Getty)
Janelle Monáe will perform at New York City Pride Island on June 26, marking her first time performing at a Pride event since she came out as queer in 2018.
Monáe said that performing at Pride “has always been a dream” as she announced her headline slot.
“Pride means so much to so many of us, and to have the opportunity to share my live performance during Pride has always been a dream,” she said in a statement.
“Celebrating Pride in NYC is a rite of passage for a queer person, I am grateful for the community it creates and I can’t wait to party with everyone.”
The New York City Pride slot comes a year after Monáe attended her first-ever Pride in New Orleans in July 2019.
She told People at the time: “It was so incredible, people were so happy. The thing that made me really teary-eyed was seeing young Black kids with their moms there.”
Monáe said that although he has the full support of her own mother, “Growing up, though, I could not have imagined… there are also so many kids who don’t have that, young and old, who don’t have that community.”
Janelle Monáe freed by her queerness.
Janelle Monáe first came out as queer in April 2018, on the eve of her LGBT-tinged third album Dirty Computer.
“Being a queer Black woman in America, someone who has been in relationships with both men and women – I consider myself to be a free-ass motherf**ker,” she told Rolling Stone.
Monáe said she had originally thought of herself as bisexual, “but then later I read about pansexuality and was like, ‘Oh, these are things that I identify with too.’ I’m open to learning more about who I am.”
She later admitted to being “terrified” before coming out, telling Lizzo in an interview for them. “I’m thankful that I didn’t allow that fear to get in the way of my freedom.”
Dirty Computer star dedicated Grammy nods to the trans community.
When Janelle Monáe earned two Grammy nominations for Dirty Computer in February 2019, she dedicated them to her “trans brothers and sisters”.
“My trans brother and sisters, they do it every day. And they are shunned from these sorts of events. So this one is for them,” she told Variety.
Monáe continued to use her platform to advocate for trans rights during Pride month 2019, demanding her fellow cis queers support their trans siblings.
“In the same way we want white folks to support us and be better allies and use their privilege to make change in those power dynamics, it’s up to us to protect those who may not be as privileged,” she told Paper.