Singer Sam Smith has opened up about his gender identity, saying that he feels just as much a woman as he does a man. Smith, who is currently promoting his new album, was giving an interview to the Sunday Times when he made the revelation about how he considered his own gender.
When he was quizzed about why it took him so long to come out the singer said he was afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing. ‘Looking back on it, it was the fear of saying the wrong thing and offending.’ He added that he was young and nieve when he first came to London and didn’t have the vocabulary to express how he was feeling. ‘And I was 19 when I started writing the first album. I’d just moved to London from a village—I was literally the only gay in the village. I didn’t know what I wanted to say.’
Smith explained that this album shows that gay man that he has become, with one song even addressing the relationship he has with his father. ‘I think they show my growth, my confidence. I feel like they show me. They show the gay guy I’ve become.’
When discussing his identity, Smith said that he feels like he as just as much a women as he is a man and doesn’t consider himself to be cisgender (when you’re gender identity matches that of your birth gender). He admitted that for a time he didn’t own any male clothes.
‘People don’t know this, but when I was 17, I remember becoming obsessed with Boy George and Marilyn [Monroe], and all that. There was one moment in my life where I didn’t own a piece of male clothing, really. I would wear full make-up every day in school, eyelashes, leggings with Dr Martens and huge fur coats, for 2.5 years.’