Miley Cyrus Reveals She’s Pansexual: ‘I Didn’t Understand My Own Gender and My Own Sexuality'

In the latest issue of Variety's Power of Women, cover girl Miley Cyrus opens up about her sexuality.

Though she is currently in a relationship with Liam Hemsworth, Cyrus identifies as pansexual. She told the magazine, "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.”

She reiterated, "Also, my nipple pasties and sh*t never felt sexualized to me. 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.”

Miley would eventually come out to her parents. She explained, "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 are going to understand.”

Cyrus also reflected on her eye-opening experience at the Los Angeles LGBT Center. She shared, "I started hearing these stories. I saw one human in particular who didn't identify as male or female. Looking at them, they were both: beautiful and sexy and tough but vulnerable and feminine but masculine. And I related to that person more than I related to anyone in my life.”

"Even though I may seem very different, people may not see me as neutral as I feel. But I feel very neutral. I think that was the first gender-neutral person I'd ever met. 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,'” Miley emphasized.