Pop sensation Miley Cyrus has been forced to respond to a social media backlash after made a number of controversial comments about lesbian women.
The trouble began on Sunday, October 20, after Cyrus appeared in an Instagram live video with her new boyfriend Cody Simpson - whom she has been dating following her split from Kaitlynn Carter and divorce from Liam Hemsworth. The singer provoked outrage among the LGBT+ community when she said that women: "don’t have to be gay."
In the video in question, Cyrus states: "There are good men out there, guys, don’t give up. You don’t have to be gay, there are good people with d*cks out there, you’ve just got to find them."
She added: "You’ve got to find a d*ck that’s not a d*ck, you know? I always thought I had to be gay because I thought all guys were evil, but it’s not true. There are good people out there that just happen to have dicks. I’ve only ever met one, and he’s on this live."
When the footage hit social media, many lesbian women, and other queer people, were left feeling deeply offended by Cyrus' seemingly-facetious discussion of a sensitive subject.
Watch the footage that kickstarted the controversy below:In response, Cyrus posted a statement to her Instagram stories on Tuesday, October 22, in which she claimed that she had been joking and that her comments had been taken out of context.
Cyrus stated: "I was talking shit about sucky guys, but let me be clear, YOU don’t CHOOSE your sexuality. You are born as you are. It has always been my priority to protect the LGBTQ community I am part of. [sic]"
However, recently Miley has also provoked controversy by sharing this extremely racy picture of herself with her hand down Cody Simpson's pants.