Hayley Kiyoko Says Beg Gay Is Her 'Biggt Strength'

Contents:

• HAYLEY KIYOKO SAYS BEG GAY IS HER 'BIGGT STRENGTH': 'IT'S EMPOWERED ME'
• HAYLEY KIYOKO: I KNEW I WAS GAY WHEN I WAS 6 YEARS OLD
• #20GAYTEEN: THE YEAR OF HAYLEY KIYOKO

HAYLEY KIYOKO SAYS BEG GAY IS HER 'BIGGT STRENGTH': 'IT'S EMPOWERED ME'

On Friday’s episo of The Kelly Clarkson Show, the mician, who has long been an advote for the LGBTQ muny, shared that beg gay has bee her “biggt strength” after years of livg life fear of other people not acceptg her.

HAYLEY KIYOKO: I KNEW I WAS GAY WHEN I WAS 6 YEARS OLD

“My biggt weakns growg up was that I was gay and I was different om everyone else and now ’s bee my biggt strength bee ’s empowered me, ” Kiyoko, 28, explaed to host Kelly Clarkson alongsi gut Tracee Ellis Ross. “When we wrote [“Chance, ” Kiyoko’s latt sgle] and rerd , I was like, ‘Oh my god, this is so gay, '” she says wh a lgh.

In , the pop sger-songwrer says she me to intify as gay at age 6 and rells how her attractn to girls drove her ep to isolatn as an adolcent. “This is what’s funny about beg gay: I look back and I remember her as a girliend, ” she tells Rollg Stone.

While Kiyoko has said she's known she was gay "sce the womb, " she didn't e out until she was much olr. "My biggt weakns growg up was that I was gay and I was different om everyone else, " Hayley says on Friday's episo of The Kelly Clarkson Show, addg that now 's bee her "biggt strength" and has empowered her.

#20GAYTEEN: THE YEAR OF HAYLEY KIYOKO

The 26-year-old is acctomed to beg an outlier, and beyond the Echo Park neighborhood: She’s an openly gay, half-Japane mic star wh a Disney Channel pedigree who’s unapologetic about her explicly queer stra of synth-pop. And while the name is obvly tongue--cheek (“I’d like to thank lbian j for rrectly namg this year and blsg for all of , ” tweeted one fan wh Kiyoko’s signature hashtag, #20GAYTEEN), as a lbian sger who speaks directly to the woke generatn, Kiyoko is a rare figure pop, settg a still-radil example. She had always known she was gay, and was out to a few close iends high school, but was “really timidated by the stigma and stereotype of the label” until she fell to a relatnship that gave her the nfince to e out.

When she thanks the crowd for makg space the mic dtry for “someone like her” — gay, female, half Japane — she starts to cry. A ltle over half a year after watchg her lay gltery, gay waste to the Bowery Ballroom, I meet Hayley Kiyoko for breakfast at Clton Street Bakg Company & Rtrant, a much-hyped bnch spot on the Lower East Si. Kiyoko wasn’t out high school, except to a very few close iends, but says she knew she was gay “sce the womb.

“I did not want to be the gay artist, and I talked to my manager all the time, like, I don't want to lead wh that. “I did not want to be the gay artist... ” The kiss was pure (and savvy) publicy, but where prev eras’ “gay for sweeps week” efforts seemed like cheap stunts — like the brief flg between The O.