Former child star Miley Cyrus has said she does not identify as any particular gender - and resents anyone who would put her in a "box".
"My whole life, I didn't understand my own gender and my own sexuality," she told Variety. "I always hated the word 'bisexual,' because that's even putting me in a box."
"The Voice" coach added that she isn't particular about who she dates, in fact, she doesn't "ever think about someone being a boy or someone being a girl."
"I went to the LGBTQ center here in L.A., and I started hearing these stories," she explained. "I saw one human in particular who didn't identify as male or female. Looking at them, they were both: beautiful and sexy and tough but vulnerable and feminine but masculine. And I related to that person more than I related to anyone in my life."
The controversial "Wrecking Ball" singer explained that meeting someone who identified as gender-neutral helped her understand her own gender.
"Even though I may seem very different, people may not see me as neutral as I feel. But I feel very neutral. I think that was the first gender-neutral person I'd ever met. Once I understood my gender more, which was unassigned, then I understood my sexuality more."
Cyrus then came to the conclusion that was "why I don't feel straight and I don't feel gay. It's because I'm not."
The former "Hannah Montana" came out as pansexual earlier, and shared how she told her mother that she was attracted to women when she was just 14 years old.
"I remember telling her I admire women in a different way. And she asked me what that meant. And I said, 'I love them. I love them like I love boys,'" she recalled to Paper Magazine. "And it was so hard for her to understand. She didn't want me to be judged and she didn't want me to go to hell. But she believes in me more than she believes in any God. I just asked for her to accept me."
She added, "I am literally open to every single thing that is consenting and doesn't involve an animal and everyone is of age. Everything that's legal, I'm down with. Yo, I'm down with any adult -- anyone over the age of 18 who is down to love me," she said. "I don't relate to being boy or girl, and I don't have to have my partner relate to boy or girl."
Less than a decade ago, Cyrus, who was raised in a Christian home and baptized in a Southern Baptist church, was considered a role model for young girls. As a teen, she refused to dress immodestly, telling People Magazine, "I like to look kind of like what girls would want to look up to, and their moms and dads will say, 'Hey, that's cool. That's different.'" She also wore a purity ring, signaling her commitment to practice abstinence until marriage.
In 2007, Cyrus referred to her church "the greatest source of strength" and recited Ephesians 6:10-11 as her favorite passage in the Bible, which says, "Finally, my brother, come close to the Lord for if you put on the full armor of God you can stand against the walls of a devil."
However, Cyrus has since rejected her faith in exchange for fame, and in 2015 publicly mocked Christians for believing in "fairytales" like Noah's ark and holding to a traditional view of marriage.
in 2011, the singer's father, country star Billy Ray Cyrus, told GQ Magazine that he regretted having her in the "Hannah Montana Show" and confessed that his family was cautious of the temptations within the entertainment industry before to going to Los Angeles.
"Somewhere along this journey, both mine and Miley's faith has been shaken...That saddens me the most," he said, adding there is "no doubt" that his family is being ruined by Satan.
