At this point, Katy Perry has been around so long that it just kind of feels like she’s always been there, doesn’t it?
But we can’t forget that the very first time we met Katy was nine years ago, when she told us all about how she kissed a girl … and she liked it.
“The taste of her cherry Chapstick,” you know you remember.
Since then, Katy’s released hit after hit, she’s had a number of Hollywood romances, she’s even had a feud with Taylor Swift — she’s a permanent fixture in the entertainment world.
But even after all that, she’s still ready and willing to go back to those bi-curious roots.
And we couldn’t love her more for it.
See, Katy attended the Human Rights Campaign’s gala dinner last night in L.A., where she received the National Equality Award.
During her acceptance speech, she said “I’m just a singer-songwriter, honestly. I speak my truths and I paint my fantasies into these little, bite-size pop songs.”
“For instance, ‘I kissed a girl and liked it.’ Truth be told … I did more than that.”
But, she went on, “How was I going to reconcile that with a gospel-singing girl raised in youth groups that were pro-conversion camps?”
She’s talking, of course, about her ultra-religious upbringing. Her parents were the kind of people who wouldn’t let her celebrate Halloween, so it makes sense that they wouldn’t be cool with this.
“What I did know,” Katy continued, “is that I was curious, and even then I knew sexuality wasn’t as black and white as this dress.”
“And honestly, I haven’t always gotten it right, but in 2008, when that song came out, I knew that I started a conversation that a lot of the world seemed curious enough to sing along to.”
She opened up more about her upbringing, explaining that “When I was growing up, homosexuality was synonymous with the words ‘abomination’ and ‘hell."”
She even said that she “prayed the gay away at my Jesus camps.”
But as she grew up and began writing and performing songs, she met more and more different kinds of people — namely people who weren’t the strictly heterosexual Christians she grew up around.
“These people were nothing like I had been taught to fear,” she said. “They were the most free, strong, kind and inclusive people I have ever met.”
“They stimulated my mind, and they filled my heart with joy, and they danced with joy while doing it.”
“These people are actually magic,” she said, “and they are magic because they are living their truth.”
Katy concluded by saying that “I stand here as real evidence for all, that no matter where you came from, it is about where you are going — that real change, real evolution, and that real perception shift can happen, if we open our minds and soften our hearts.”
“No longer can I sit in silence. I have to stand for what I know is true and that is equality and justice for all, period.”
Katy Perry, everybody. A true gift.
