In a new interview, British
singer-songwriter Sam Smith discussed reaction to coming out
non-binary.
Smith's fourth studio album, Gloria,
arrived Friday.
Speaking with Zane Lowe on Apple Music
1, Smith, who changed their pronouns in 2020, said that the public
response in the UK has been “exhausting.”
“My family, they can communicate with
me. They always did,” they said. “But they communicate with me
now in an even better way. My love life has become better from it. I
feel lovable. I feel comfortable in my skin, but I wear what I want
to wear.”
“Since changing my pronouns, it felt
like a coming home.”
“I think all the only negatives in
the struggle have been in my public life and my job,” Smith
continued. “And just the amount of hate and shitiness that came my
way was just exhausting. And it was really hard and it's not like,
this isn't me sitting at home Googling my name... It was in the
fucking news.”
“It was hard not to look. But for me,
I can deal with not Googling myself, not reading comments. That's
something I can control. What people don't realize with trans
non-binary people in the UK is it's happening in the street.”
“I'm being abused in the street
verbally more than I ever have. So that was the hardest part, I
think, was being at home in the UK and having people shouting at me
in the street. Someone spat at me in the street.”
“What I find hard about it is … if
that's happening to me and I'm famous, I'm a pop star, can you
imagine what other kids, like queer kids are feeling?” Smith said.
“And it's just so sad that we're in 2023 and it's still happening.
It's exhausting and especially in England.”
Smith's first track from Gloria,
“Unholy” with Kim Petras, hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100
a few months ago.