- In a Yahoo! Live video, JoJo Siwa said she doesn’t like the word “lesbian”.
- “I don’t like the word itself,” she said.
- After receiving backlash, Siwa said it’s not a bad word, it’s just one she doesn’t use often.
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JoJo Siwa received backlash after launching Yahoo! Live on July 21 that she doesn’t like the word “lesbian”.
“I don’t like the word itself,” the singer said in her video interview. “It’s like lesbian, it’s like many things.”
On Friday, the former “Dance Moms” star took to TikTok to clarify that she doesn’t think it’s a bad word, it’s just one she doesn’t use often.
“I never said lesbian was a dirty word, and I would never say it’s a dirty word because it’s not,” she said. “It’s not a bad word, it’s not an insult, and most importantly, it’s not a word I’m ashamed to say or ashamed to identify in any way.”
A Siwa representative did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Some critics took to Twitter after Siwa’s comments were released
In the Yahoo! In the interview, Siwa compared lesbians to the word “wet,” visibly wincing as she spoke.
Some people who saw the video tweeted responses in support of the word.
—Rio (@riomat7) July 25, 2022
—BB / Ozymandias ⚢ | ER/FAE | (@butchryoma) July 25, 2022
Others on Twitter said that a self-identifying lesbian like Siwa (she said in the Yahoo! video that “at the end of the day, that’s who I am”) expressing discomfort at the word is common and often a product internalized homophobia.
—ؘ (@prcybcth) July 30, 2022
—Ana R (@BadCodeShoot) July 25, 2022
—brax (@MlLFOLOGY) July 25, 2022
Still, some found it inexcusable, given Siwa’s large following and status as a young gay icon.
You can watch the full video below.
Siwa first opened up about her sexuality publicly in January 2021
Public speculation about Siwa’s sexuality began in January 2021 when she shared a Twitter photo of herself wearing a t-shirt that read “Best. Gay. Cousin. Ever.” She later confirmed in an Instagram Live video that she was part of the LGBTQ community that month.
JoJo Siwa at this month’s premiere of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images
“I always believed that my person would just be my person,” she said in the video. “If that person happened to be a boy, great! And if that person happened to be a girl, great! I think I’m just very happy. I think in life you know when you meet their person, I really do.”
In June, Siwa attended her first Pride march, which included a surprise appearance from her friend Kylie Prew.