Miley Cyrus Says "No One Could Understand" Her First Kiss
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First kisses can be an awkward thing — just watch The Bachelor for evidence of that — but for Miley Cyrus, it showed her a lot more than she expected. After her guest appearance on RuPaul's Drag Race, the newlywed explained how her first kiss helped to shape her current views. That first kiss was with another girl, which helped Cyrus to express herself and accept people no matter what their sexual orientation.
People reports that during her appearance on the podcast RuPaul: What's the Tea with Michelle Visage, Cyrus explained that exploring her own sexuality at a young age is part of why she's such a big advocate for the LGBTQ+ community. Not only that, the experience taught her that the most important thing is to love herself and be herself, something that Drag Race fans already know.
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"When I was a kid growing up, being from the South, and my first experience, my first kiss was with a girl in middle school. And no one could understand, in Nashville, saying that," she said. "So I had that relationship. And I was one of the only kids on Disney that would come out and say that I supported all my gay friends. No one would really say that, so that was always really important to me. To find what mattered to me."
Cyrus has discussed her self-discovery before. She told Vanity Fair that she started exploring in "fifth or sixth grade," adding that her first relationship was with another girl.
"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 okay. Even at that time, when my parents didn't understand, I just felt that one day they were," she explained. "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."
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That doesn't take anything away from Cyrus's current relationship status. She explained in a personal essay that marrying a man doesn't instantly make her some sort of "polite hetero lady" and that being queer is still a huge part of her identity. She's also looking at marriage as a new way to define what a relationship even means. By being a queer woman in a marriage with a heterosexual male, she's showing everyone that there's no real standard for a married couple.
"My relationship is very special to me, it is my home," she wrote. "I feel less misplaced when we are in the same room, no matter where that is, but just because something changes in my relationship doesn't mean something has to drastically change in my individuality."
