Sam Smith has spoken about how speaking openly about being non-binary has felt like a second “coming out”.
On Wednesday night, the singer continued their year of personal and professional triumphs when they were named the Person of the Year at the Attitude Awards.
During their acceptance speech, things took a poignant turn, when they delivered an emotional speech reflecting on their recent strides toward living authentically as a genderqueer and non-binary person.
Wiping away tears and describing the moment as “overwhelming”, Sam said: “The last year has been a wild ride of self-realisation and has almost felt like a second coming out.
“The reason I’ve been able to show all of the sides of myself to the public and express myself in these ways is because I felt incredibly safe.”
Sam went on to thank a number of high-profile LGBTQ community members, including writer Tom Rasmussen and transgender model Munroe Bergdorf, for offering support throughout their journey.
“Let’s live as loudly and queerly as humanly possible,” they added.
In September, Sam announced they were embracing the gender neutral pronouns “they” and “them.” Prior to that announcement, the 27-year-old had been speaking about their gender identity in greater detail in various interviews.
Sam also made headlines for their outfit at the Attitude Awards, beaming as they walked the red carpet in a forest green lace kimono.
They also finally buried the hatchet with filmmaker Dustin Lance Black, who criticised Sam following their speech at the 2016 Oscars, in which they (wrongly) declared that “no openly gay man” had ever won an Academy Award before.