Home » Latest » Celebrity » Stars You Didn’t Know Were Pansexual

Stars You Didn’t Know Were Pansexual

4

60 0 Celebrity

7.5

SaveSavedRemoved 2

Five public figures pulled back the curtain on a label most fans still confuse with bisexuality — and their reasons for doing so are as different as their careers.

Pansexuality — attraction to people across all genders or regardless of gender identity, per GLAAD’s definition — has quietly picked up some of the most recognizable names in music, reality television, and scripted drama. Nicki Swift’s video rundown “Stars You Didn’t Know Were Pansexual” tracks five of them, from a red-carpet confession in 2014 to a Paper magazine interview that dropped in the middle of 2018. Each came out on their own terms, and each explained the label differently.

• Caitlin Stasey told AfterEllen on a 2014 red carpet that her sexuality is fluid and that she draws no distinction between attraction to men or women.
• Natalie Negrotti came out as pansexual on MTV’s The Challenge: Final Reckoning in July 2018 after being outed by a co-star, saying she wanted to use the moment to educate viewers.
• Brendon Urie told Paper magazine in July 2018 that despite being happily married to a woman, he’s attracted to people based on “if a person is beautiful and I could see myself being with them” regardless of gender.

Caitlin Stasey’s Early Confession

Stasey, the Australian actress known for Reign and Neighbours, was ahead of the curve on this. Back in 2014, well before pansexuality had the mainstream vocabulary it has now, she told AfterEllen point-blank that she doesn’t discern between attraction to men and women — a fluid answer that predates a lot of the language celebrities use to describe the identity today.

Natalie Negrotti’s On-Camera Moment

Negrotti’s path to coming out wasn’t planned. The Big Brother alum was outed by a fellow competitor during a July 2018 episode of MTV’s The Challenge: Final Reckoning, and rather than shrink from it, she turned the moment into an explanation, telling the show she hoped the exposure would help educate people who didn’t understand the term. It’s a familiar beat for reality competitors thrust into unscripted personal revelations — the kind of dynamic that’s played out across shows chronicled in reality TV’s messier co-star fallouts, except here the outing pushed Negrotti toward advocacy instead of conflict.

Courtney Act’s Attitude Interview

Shane Jenek, better known by his drag persona Courtney Act, had already made history winning Celebrity Big Brother UK in 2018 when he sat down with Attitude magazine. He described identifying as pansexual as a way of capturing emotional and sexual attraction that doesn’t fit neatly into “gay” or “straight” boxes — a distinction he framed as more accurate to how he actually experiences attraction than either label alone.

Asia Kate Dillon’s Lifelong Identity

Dillon, the non-binary actor who plays Taylor Mason on Showtime’s Billions, gave one of the more precise definitions on record. Speaking to HuffPost in April 2017, Dillon said they’ve identified as pansexual “since I understood sexuality,” explaining they have “the spiritual, emotional and physical ability to be attracted to any gender.” That framing — sexuality as separate from gender identity — is part of why Dillon’s Taylor Mason became a landmark non-binary character on premium cable.

Brendon Urie’s Paper Magazine Reveal

Urie’s July 2018 interview with Paper magazine landed loudest simply because of who he is — the frontman of Panic! At the Disco, married to Sarah Orzechowski since 2013. He made clear the marriage wasn’t a contradiction: he’s committed to his wife while still identifying as pansexual, attracted to people based on character rather than gender.

“If a person is heart eyes for me, I don’t care if they’re a guy or a girl,” Urie told Paper, describing attraction as something that comes down to whether “their heart is in the right place.”

It’s the kind of candor that’s become a pattern for artists willing to complicate their own public image rather than simplify it — the same instinct that’s driven plenty of profiles of musicians who turn out to be nothing like their stage persona suggests. Urie didn’t need to clarify anything about his marriage to make the announcement land; he just made the distinction between commitment and attraction, and let Paper print it.