Little Richard Claims He's Not Gay Anymore, Calls It "Unnatural Affection"

For generations, Little Richard was embraced as a transcendent sexual icon as much as he was acknowledged for being a Rock and Roll pioneer. If it wasn't his stroke on the piano keys that had fans gravitating to him, it was the provocative mystique behind the make-up and costumes that made him an androgynous icon before men like Prince and Young Thug or Lil Uzi Vert came along. While Richard has a history of being with women and has been married to a woman before (Ernestine Campbell 1959-1963), his sexuality has long been a matter of curiosity to the public. The "Tutti Frutti" singer has never identified as transgender, but he's gone on record to confess that he grew up mainly congregating with girls and that he was ultimately kicked out of the home he was reared in because his father took exception to his feminine mannerisms. And biographies on the rocker tell of sexual relations with men occurring from his teenage years and on. But in an interview he recently did with Three Angels Broadcasting Network, the 84-year-old Georgia native credits the eccentric nature fans associated with him, to pressures placed on him to be different if he wanted to make it as a star in the music industry.

"When I first come in show business they wanted you to look like everybody but yourself. And, anybody that comes in show business they gone say you gay or straight," Richard said. But then he dropped what equated to a bombshell to fans, particularly in the LGBTQ community. "God made men, men and women, women. You’ve got to live the way God wants you to live," said Richard, before referring to his former expressions of sexuality as "unnatural affection," and claiming to have rededicated his life to Jesus.

Richard's statements blew the minds of many, who'd otherwise have Little Richard as a no-brainer on a list of gay entertainers, particularly from his time. And just as recently as 2012, Richard identified himself as "omnisexual" in a GQ exclusive. "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," he said at the time. Considering he made such a declaration only five years ago, reactions on social media tell of a good many fans calling the legend's bluff.