Celebrity1 min(s) read
Published 11:41 12 Dec 2020 GMT
Shawn Mendes has apologized to fellow pop star Sam Smith after misgendering them at the iHeartRadio Jingle Ball recently, BuzzFeed reports.
Shawn introduced Smith, who uses the pronouns they/them before their performance, but referred to the Diamonds singer as "he".
Mendes later took to his Instagram Story to issue an apology to Sam Smith, writing:
"Oh @samsmith I'm so sorry for referring to you as a 'he' for your Jingle Ball introduction. It absolutely slipped my mind. Wont [sic] happen again...Sending you so much love! Also you are absolutely one of the funniest people I've ever met!"
Sam Smith responded perfectly, reposting Mendes' apology and adding a message of their own. "We're all learning together," they wrote. "Happy holidays, all my love."
Recently, Sam Smith opened up about the "backlash" and "unsupportive" comments they received after coming out as non-binary last year.
During an interview on the Late Late Show, Smith discussed how coming out as non-binary has been both "absolutely incredible" and "really, really hard".
"All in all, it's been wonderful," they began. "I've always felt the way I felt, and being able to tell everyone that and feel so much more open about certain parts of my personality and my life has been absolutely incredible."
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Sam revealed that they decided to come out publicly after a message they sent to their family about their pronouns was leaked.
"In a world where I wasn't a well-known person, I would have changed my pronouns and I would have got used to it in a normal way, which I actually tried to do," they explained. "A message I sent to my family about changing my pronouns got leaked, weirdly, so I had to make a decision to tell everyone and go for it."
"It's been amazing, but it's also been really, really hard to see all the backlash and the amount of people that are still so unsupportive of gender-nonconforming people and trans people all around the world," they went on.
"It's definitely more of a struggle than I was expecting," Sam continued. "But I feel good in my skin, which is the prize and the wonderful thing."
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Back in 2019 the Stay With Me singer took to Twitter to ask his fans and followers to refer to them using they/them pronouns in a candid post.
"After a lifetime of being at war with my gender I've decided to embrace myself for who I am, inside and out," they wrote. "I'm so excited and privileged to be surrounded by people that support me in this decision, but I've been very nervous about announcing this because I care too much about what people think."
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"I understand there will be many mistakes and misgendering but all I ask is you please please try," they added. "I hope you can see me like I see myself now."
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