In honor of pride month, singer, songwriter, and queer icon, Kehlani, takes the kick off of Paper Magazine’s Pride issue and proves us nothing short of amazing. This cover gives us an entirely different vibe with ultra-romantic, feminine beauty capturing the bright, colorful, airy aura Kehlani. In this issue, the singer touched a lot on her struggles being in the spotlight and a part of the LGBTQ community. We’ve always known that Kehlani is very open about her sexuality and doesn’t hold back her tongue to criticize those who fetishize the LGBTQ community. If you remember, a month ago Kehlani called out Rita Ora’s new song ‘Girls’ for queerbaiting. She tweeted her thoughts Twitter saying: “Hate to be THAT guy but there were many awkward slurs, quotes and moments that were like ‘word? Word’ and don’t make this personal. I have an incredible song out with one of the artists and would love to work with the other three as well and have met them all and respect them. There. Were. harmful. lyrics/ period. love y’all”
However, despite all of that, Kehlani continues to flourish and embrace her fluidity. When asked about her experience in a recent interview about being open in the industry and in the LGBTQ community the 23-year-old singer stated, "I like feel people judge me a lot when they see me, because of what I look like. I get a lot of, 'Why do you get your nails done? Why some days are you more masculine then you are feminine? People either expect me to be a quote-unquote dyke or femme, and it's weird to me. Especially when queer people do it to each other, because I think when you truly understand the humanness of queerness, there are no rules to this shit." There is no doubt that pressure and criticism will come along with being open in the industry and expressive about sexuality, as seen with Kehlani. Nevertheless, she came through and showed out for her Paper issue!
Photos: Getty Images