Rock legend Little Richard denounces homosexuality, years after coming out as gay
By Will Stroude
Rock legend Little Richard has denounced same-sex relationships as “unnatural” more than 20 years after he publicly came out as gay.
The veteran entertainer, 84, gave an interview to the Christian-oriented Three Angels Broadcasting Network last month, where he discusses his faith and appeared to shun his sexuality, E! reports.
He said: “Anybody come in showbusiness, they’re going to say you’re gay. Are you straight? Are you a homosexual something? They’re going to say it.”
“But God, Jesus, he made men, men, he made women, women, you know? And you’ve got to live the way God wants you to live.”
Little Richard’s remarks come 22 years after the rock ‘n’ roll pioneer came out as gay in a 1995 interview with Penthouse, and continue his long and complicated history with his sexuality.
Born Richard Wayne Penniman in Georgia in 1932, Little Richard found fame in the 1950s with songs including ‘Tutti Frutti’ and ‘Good Golly, Miss Molly’.
Having described homosexuals as “sick” during the 1980s, he later told Penthouse: “I’ve been gay all my life and I know God is a God of love, not of hate.”
In 2012, he told GQ magazine: “We are all both male and female. Sex to me is like a smorgasbord. Whatever I feel like, I go for. What kind of sexual am I? I am omnisexual!”
Little Richard concluded his interview with Three Angels Broadcasting with the statement: “I don’t want to sing rock and roll no more. I want to be holy like Jesus.”
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