Keke Palmer reflects on ‘accepting’ her sexuality: ‘I want my life to be mine’ -TGN

Keke Palmer discusses her journey to accepting her sexuality. (Getty)

Award-winning actress and singer Keke Palmer has shared more than ever about her experiences growing up queer and accepting her sexuality.

No star Keke Palmer came out in public in 2015 in iconic fashion her “I Don’t Belong to You” music video. saw her being led to bed by another woman. While the 29-year-old media personality has a history of speaking out for the queer community, it wasn’t until this past year that she began discussing in detail her own personal journey as a “free spirit” and queer woman.

In June 2022, Palmer starred in Disney’s Light year, which she praised at the time for its inclusion of an LGBTQ+ character. Then, in April of this year, the star gave an impassioned speech at the Los Angeles LGBT Center Gala about navigating her own “confusion” surrounding her identity.

Now Palmer has opened up again while talking to former Disney star Raven-Symoné and her wife, Miranda Pearman-Maday, on an episode of their podcast The best podcast ever with Raven and Mirandawhich was released on Monday (July 24).

During the hour-long discussion, Palmer recalled her initial nerves about filming a “hot” erotic lesbian sex scene opposite actress Haley Ramm for the 2018 film pimp, stating, “It was honestly the safest, best experience ever… she (Ramm) was so open and so wild. I’d do it again”.

Palmer explained that her “history with women” made the whole movie experience “easier,” which naturally led to further discussion about her “free spirit” sexuality.

“There was a point in my life where I thought, ‘Can I be myself?'” she told Raven-Symoné and Pearman-Maday about embracing her sexuality. “The moment when you think it over. I don’t agree, why am I overthinking this and then I just got to the point where I thought, ‘Well, I just want my life to be my own.'”

Palmer said she first developed feelings for girls “very young” — something that continued throughout her teenage years. “I was like, ‘Oh no, I’ll push it aside.’ But by the time I was 17, 18, I was like, ‘I want to explore my life. I want to stop judging my thoughts or feeling like this isn’t something I could explore,” she explained.

Her journey to self-acceptance was slowed by growing up in a “religious family,” even though her parents were never explicitly homophobic.

“In my household, my parents never said, ‘You’re religious, you’re going to hell because you’re gay,'” she said. “They weren’t really like that at all. Because I’ve always liked boys too, I was like, ‘Well, we don’t need to talk about it.’ It was just another little perk that no one really needs to know.

“My parents never cared about anything like that and didn’t really talk about it. And I know by the time they saw how free I was and I wanted to date whoever, they said, “Who cares?” It was never something that was on their mind.

Palmer’s early experiences were also shaped by the media she also used. She “vividly remembers” talk show host Ellen Degeneres publicly coming out as gay in 1997 — which was quickly followed by the star’s popular ABC sitcom. Ellen be cancelled.

“I’ve never forgotten that,” Palmer shared. “Things like that are just in your head, ‘Oh you’re going to be cast out’ or ‘There’s something wrong with you’. I don’t know what changed for me. I think it was me who got to a point where I wanted love and realized I really wanted to open up to it. I wanted nothing to stop me.

“And in the end I just feel like accepting that part of myself was my process of having love in my life, by accepting and loving the whole part of me.”

Palmers love life made headlines in early July after her long-term boyfriend and father of her child, Darius Jackson, publicly shamed her for wearing a black bodysuit while meeting R&B singer Usher.

But in an interview with The Cut shortly afterthe star spoke of feeling more power in her body, and less self-conscious, since she had her baby in February.

“After having my baby, I have become so much more powerful. I’m just so empowered in a crazy way. Browsing my stuff, enjoying myself,” she said.