--- title: Miley Cyrus Talks Coming Out as Pansexual, Sexuality description: Miley Cyrus revealed what it was like for her to come out as pansexual and what helped her realize her sexuality. canonical: https://time.com/4526468/miley-cyrus-comes-out-pansexual/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-11T15:40:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:37:30.334Z og:title: Miley Cyrus Opens Up About Coming Out as Pansexual og:description: 'The Voice' coach is arguing for a new letter in the "LGBTQ" alphabet og:url: https://time.com/4526468/miley-cyrus-comes-out-pansexual/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt31fc1441973b66d1/6988a984a988ca2e896b9b74/miley-cyrus-coming-out-pansexual.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: 2016 iHeartRadio Music Festival - Night 1 - Show og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Miley Cyrus Opens Up About Coming Out as Pansexual twitter:description: 'The Voice' coach is arguing for a new letter in the "LGBTQ" alphabet twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt31fc1441973b66d1/6988a984a988ca2e896b9b74/miley-cyrus-coming-out-pansexual.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Miley Cyrus Opens Up About Coming Out to Her Parents > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Oct 11, 2016 3:40 PM UTC  Miley Cyrus performs onstage at the 2016 iHeartRadio Music Festival at T-Mobile Arena on September 23, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/WireImage) Miley Cyrus performs onstage at the 2016 iHeartRadio Music Festival at T-Mobile Arena on September 23, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/WireImage) Ethan Miller—WireImage  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Oct 11, 2016 3:40 PM UTC When [Miley Cyrus](http://time.com/4312186/miley-cyrus-jupiter-saturn-tattoo/) who recently starred in [_Crisis in Six Scenes_](http://time.com/4508679/woody-allen-crisis-in-six-scenes-amazon/), began exploring her own gender and sexuality, she wasn’t going to let anyone put her identity in a box. In an interview with [_Variety_](http://variety.com/2016/music/features/miley-cyrus-the-voice-donald-trump-vmas-woody-allen-coming-out-pansexual-1201884281/), Cyrus revealed details about her first relationship, which was with a female. Here are the highlights from the interview. **On not wanting to be defined by one label when it came to her sexuality:** “My whole life, I didn’t understand my own gender and my own sexuality. I always hated the word “bisexual,” because that’s even putting me in a box. I don’t ever think about someone being a boy or someone being a girl.” **On coming to terms with her own sexuality growing up and coming out to her family:** “My eyes started opening in the fifth or sixth grade. My first relationship in my life was with a chick. I grew up in a very religious Southern family. The universe has always given me the power to know I’ll be OK. Even at that time, when my parents didn’t understand, I just felt that one day they are going to understand.” **On identifying as pansexual:** “I never related to loving being a girl. And then, being a boy didn’t sound fun to me. I think the LGBTQ alphabet could continue forever. But there’s a “P” that should happen, for ‘pansexual’…once I understood my gender more, which was unassigned, then I understood my sexuality more. I was like, “Oh — that’s why I don’t feel straight and I don’t feel gay. It’s because I’m not.” Read the full interview at [_Variety_](http://variety.com/2016/music/features/miley-cyrus-the-voice-donald-trump-vmas-woody-allen-coming-out-pansexual-1201884281/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4526468/miley-cyrus-comes-out-pansexual/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4526468/miley-cyrus-comes-out-pansexual/"},"headline":"Miley Cyrus Opens Up About Coming Out to Her Parents","datePublished":"2016-10-11T15:40:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:37:30.334Z","description":"'The Voice' coach opens up about her sexuality","url":"https://time.com/4526468/miley-cyrus-comes-out-pansexual/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Entertainment","Miley Cyrus","LGBT","celebrity","Culture"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt31fc1441973b66d1/6988a984a988ca2e896b9b74/miley-cyrus-coming-out-pansexual.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt31fc1441973b66d1/6988a984a988ca2e896b9b74/miley-cyrus-coming-out-pansexual.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2016 iHeartRadio Music Festival - Night 1 - Show","caption":"2016 iHeartRadio Music Festival - Night 1 - Show","creditText":"Ethan Miller—WireImage","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4526468/miley-cyrus-comes-out-pansexual/","name":"Miley Cyrus Opens Up About Coming Out to Her Parents"}}]}] ```