In addition to his brief attempts to adhere to a heteronormative lifestyle, a teenage Little Richard was kicked out of his house by his father after it was discovered that the "Good Golly Miss Molly" singer participated in gender-nonconforming activities — such as wearing his mother's clothes — and that he was attracted to members of the same sex, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Little Richard's own take on his sexuality also seemed to evolve over the years. "I've been gay all my life and I know God is a God of love, not of hate," the rock star said in a 1995 interview with Penthouse (via GQ). However, years later in a 2012 interview with GQ, Little Richard preferred to describe his sexual orientation as that of an "omnisexual."
"We are all both male and female," the pianist said, seemingly conflating both his sexual orientation and gender identity into a personal, catch-all term, "Sex to me is like a smörgåsbord. Whatever I feel like, I go for."
Unfortunately, some of the last words he gave publicly on the matter of his queerness seemed to repudiate it entirely."Anybody that comes in show business, they gon' say you gay or straight," he said in a 2017 interview on the Christian network Three Angels Broadcasting (via Billboard), in which he deemed queerness and the LGBTQ community "unnatural."
"God made men, men and women, women," he said during the segment. "You've got to live the way God wants you to live ... he can save you."
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