Katy Perry: I prayed the gay away before I realised that sexuality isn’t black and white
HER first hit song was about a romantic encounter with another woman.
But Katy Perry has revealed that she ‘prayed the gay away’ as a child at strict religious camps.
The 32-year- old singer, whose first hit I Kissed a Girl went to number one in nearly 20 countries in 2008, spoke about her changing attitude to sexuality at a Human Rights Campaign gala in Los Angeles. She was there to accept an award for her work advocating LGBT rights.
Wearing a couture black and white gown with a ruffled neckline at the ceremony on Saturday, she said: ‘When I was growing up homosexual- ity was synonymous with the word abomination and hell… I wanted the pearly gates.
‘So most of my unconscious adolescence, I prayed the gay away at my Jesus camps but then in the middle of it all, in a twist of events, I found my gift and my gift introduced me to people outside my bubble and my bubble started to burst.’
Miss Perry was discouraged from listening to secular music as a child by her parents, both born-again Christians. Along with her siblings, she grew up attending religious schools and camps and found her voice as a gospel singer before moving to LA aged 17 and launching her pop career.
She has admitted experimenting with women in the past, explaining: ‘I’m just a singer-songwriter honestly. I speak my truths and I paint my fantasies into these little bitesize pop songs. For instance, I kissed a girl and I liked it.
‘What I did know is that I was curious and even then I knew sexuality wasn’t as black and white as this dress.’
The singer recently split from actor Orlando Bloom. The pair raised eyebrows with a statement describing their break-up as ‘taking respectful, loving space at this time’.