#panasexual

I just made a queer month art with Abe and my oc Revek together before next month

And another one with Moon(evil star) with Star or the left

Janelle Monáe is an award winning singer, songwriter, rapper and actress. She has been honored with a Screen Actors Guild Award, an Emmy, an ASCAP Vanguard Award; as well as a Trailblazer of the Year Award(2018) from Billboard magazine.

Monáe released her demo album, The Audition in 2003 and was signed with Bad Boy Records. Since then she has released 4 albums (2010, 2013, 2018, & 2023).

In a 2011 interview Monáe said”

“I only dates androids (a reference an alter ego in many of her songs). I speak about androids because I think the android represents the new 'other'. You can compare it to being a lesbian or being a gay man or being a Black woman ... what I want is for people who feel oppressed or feel like the 'other' to connect with the music and to feel like, 'She represents who I am.”

As an actor, Monáe has appeared in several critically acclaimed films, including Moonlight (2016), Hidden Figures (2016, Glass Onion (2022), and the television series Homecoming (2020).

Monáe said she identifies with both bisexuality and pansexuality. On January 10, 2020, she tweeted the hashtag #IAmNonbinary, explaining:

“… it resonated with me, especially as someone who has pushed boundaries of gender since the beginning of my career. I feel my feminine energy, my masculine energy, and energy I can't even explain."

In April 2022, she came out publicly as non-binary:

"I'm nonbinary, so I just don't see myself as a woman, solely ... I feel like god is so much bigger than the 'he' or the 'she.' And if I am from God, I am everything."

Pride Month is coming to a close, and it hasn’t been an overwhelmingly positive one, with the erosion of women’s (and others’) rights with Roe v. Wade being overturned, and the distinct possibility that Obergefell v. Hodges as well as other significant decisions could be next.  This year, for me, June has been a reminder that bigots never really take a holiday—quite the opposite, as this month has a way of emboldening them; the Hide the Pride campaign affecting public libraries across the country is just one example.

In light of all the depressing stuff, I wanted to write something more positive about being queer and being a heart lover—two parts of my identity that are irrevocably intertwined.  I knew early on that I was different in more ways than one.  I was obsessed with my Fisher Price stethoscope, and dreamed of using it with/on everyone I cared for.  I never knew anyone else who felt so strongly about heartbeats. A few years later, I knew that I did not experience attraction the same way most of the population does.  It felt empowering to come out as a lesbian at 20, but flipping through Curve magazine never felt quite right.  I was into my twenties before I learned about asexuality on the internet: the orientation that involves experiencing little or no sexual attraction.  I just wanted to listen to hearts, to be listened to; it was no type of foreplay and the goal was not arousal.  I cherish the opportunity to share that intimacy with friends and significant others alike.  I love romance as much as most, but feel anything from indifference to outright repulsion at sexual imagery.  My disinterest in sex led me to denying my attraction to women, men, and other genders because it seemed that allosexuality is compulsory in society, as though my attraction could not be valid if it didn’t have a sexual component.  It was quite some time before I realized that attraction truly is as varied as colors of the rainbow, to be cheesy about it. :) I think of my love of hearts and my overwhelming desire to share it with people I love is just something that makes me that much more wonderfully queer.

Despite the unfortunate makeup of our Supreme Court and how it makes me fear for the future, I feel so encouraged when I see young people living out loud and understanding what took me 20+ years to comprehend.  They’re realizing they’re asexual, and they aren’t broken because of it; they’re realizing they’re gay, lesbian, bi, or pan, and that doesn’t make them mentally ill and they don't need conversion therapy.  They’re realizing that they’re trans or otherwise genderqueer, and it doesn’t mean they’re confused at all.  They’re seeing more and more representation in books, TV, films, music, and every aspect of pop culture.  I’m meeting more and more mental health professionals that understand these identities, and seek to understand them better instead of pathologizing them.  I know there is so much more work to be done, but I’m so glad that most younger people won’t be saddled with the kind of doubt and self-loathing that I was.

A couple of ace resources:

AVEN FAQs

Yasmin Benoit on IG (ace activist)

Marvel's Dracula is bisexual (and here's why you should NOT whine about it): I have absolutely no complaints about the current Avengers comics.  This is actually a fun read. Dracula being bisexual is NOT an SJW recent invention.  Many depictions of Dracula are bisexual.  Some historians believe that the character of Renfield in the Dracula novel was an outlet for Bram Stoker's own infatuation with actor Henry Irving.   There is a deleted scene of the 1992 Bram Stoker's Dracula film starring Gary Oldman, in which Renfield says that he "lost him (Dracula) to that pretty woman."   Dario Argento (Director of the original Susperia) said his version of Dracula is bisexual (2012).   The German production of Frank Wildhorn's Dracula The Musical AKA Dracula das Musical had Dracula with brides and grooms.  The original English language production of the musical premiered on Broadway in 2004.  And Renfield's The Master's Song and it's reprise (which is a duet with Dracula) is very homoerrotic.  And the song "Fresh Blood" in the original production of the musical (and still used) Indicates that Dracula wants both Mina and Jonathan Harker. This is not some new invention. This is true to character and I'm actually perfectly okay with it.   As a lover of almost all Dracula fiction (save for the crappy NBC series and a few others...)