PA Images/Sam Smith/InstagramSam Smith is urging people to become familiar with non-binary pronouns as they fear they’ll be misgendered ‘to the day [they] die’.
The 27-year-old singer announced they would be changing their pronouns to ‘they/them’ last September, after revealing they identified as non-binary.
In a post shared on Instagram, Sam said they had been ‘at war with [their] gender’ their entire life, adding they were now ready to embrace themselves for who they are, ‘inside and out’.
Though the Too Good At Goodbyes singer has embraced their new pronouns, they have found society is struggling to do the same.
In an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music’s New Music Daily on Friday, February 14, Sam said it is ‘very, very difficult’ for people to change their vocabulary.
They added:
It takes time. Everyone messes up. I’m going to be misgendered to the day I die.
PA ImagesThough the 27-year-old acknowledges change will take a ‘long, long time’, they are adamant it is something that ‘needs to happen’.
They added:
This is all about feeling safe and it makes me feel happy and it makes me feel comfortable, and if I get to live a life where I’m a little bit more comfortable and happy, then I think it’s worth it.
Sam credited younger generations for helping them to understand their identity, admitting they hadn’t heard of the term ‘non-binary’ before kids started using it. As soon as they learned the phrase, Sam realised it applied to how they felt.
Sam believes younger generations are paramount in changing the way society sees gender, as they believe ‘anything goes now’.
Sam continued:
The way that I’ve opened myself up over the last two years is all because of the kids of today and how they are growing up and gender is just becoming nothing… they don’t understand it, sexuality is so fluid.
PASam opened up further about their gender in a recent interview on Heart Breakfast, where they explained that rather than being male or female, they ‘flow somewhere in between’.
The singer went on:
It’s all on the spectrum. I’ve always had a little bit of a war going within my body and my mind. I do think like a woman sometimes, in my head.
Sometimes I’ve questioned, ‘Do I want a sex change?’ It’s something I still think about, like, ‘Do I want to?’
Hopefully younger generations will continue to encourage the use of non-binary pronouns, so Sam and those in similar positions do not have to constantly worry about being misgendered.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.