In a new interview, singer-songwriter
Sam Smith discussed the difficulties they faced coming out as
non-binary.
Smith came out last year, changing
their pronouns to they/them.
Smith, who is promoting their third
studio album Love Goes, made the comments during an appearance
on CBS This Morning.
“Gender, for me, has been nothing but
traumatizing and challenging throughout my life,” Smith said. “It's
so hard to explain. I just feel like myself. I don't feel like a man,
basically.”
“I honestly, I can't express to
enough people how much courage it's taken [to come out]. I wasn't
prepared for the amount of ridicule. And bullying, really, that I've
experienced.”
The 28-year-old added that they had no
queer role models growing up in rural Cambridgeshire, England.
“I grew up in a village with no
access to queer people and queer spaces until I was 19, 20. So a lot
of my growing up was as a gay person and as a queer person has
happened in front of people,” Smith
said, referring to his public life.
“It's going so much better. After
being able to talk about my gender expression, I feel such a weight
has been lifted,” they added.