Halsey is opening up about the difficulties she faced after coming out as bisexual.
The Grammy-nominated singer was honored with the Outstanding Music Artist title at the 2018 GLAAD Media Awards in New York on Saturday. Because she’s in Europe, the star and wasn’t able to attend the show so she instead shared a video message with fans.
“I spent the past year and the year before that working really hard to be a better representative of the LGBT community,” said Halsey, 23, who has been open about her sexuality since she rose to fame in 2015.
“I’m a young, bisexual woman, and I’ve spent a large part of my life trying to validate myself — to my friends, to my family, to myself — trying to prove that who I love and how I feel is not a phase; it’s not part of some confusion that’s going to change or could be manipulated,” the singer said in her GLAAD video.
“So I tried really hard to find the courage this year to write female pronouns into my music,” Halsey added.
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Indeed, the New Jersey native (real name: Ashley Frangipane) sang of relationships with both men and women on her 2017 album Hopeless Fountain Kingdom, which featured inclusive tracks including “Bad at Love” and “Strangers” with Fifth Harmony’s Lauren Jauregui, who is also bisexual.
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After thanking GLAAD for the honor, Halsey — who is dating 28-year-old rapper G-Eazy — used the rest of the video to advocate for homeless youth services.
“It’s estimated that up to 40 percent of homeless youth are minors who are part of the LGBT community,” she said.
“Many of them have been ostracized from their families and from their communities because of people who don’t agree with their lifestyle. This means that they a harder time getting access to health care, to legal services, to education, to mental health services, which makes it all the more difficult for them,” Halsey added.
