“Homosexuality in general is very taboo in the Black community, so that on top of the religious aspect, it was something that I did feel like I needed to withhold for a while.”

Paris-Michael Jackson recently opened up about her sexuality in her six-part Facebook Watch docu-series, Unfiltered: Paris Jackson and Gabriel Glen. In the series she said she “never thought” she would “end up with a dude.”

Many of Jackson’s life stories are told in the series, which empathises her father’s support and love. Michael Jackson – her father – made a point of tolerance, she explained.

“My dad raised me in a very open-minded house,” she said. “I was eight years old, in love with this female on the cover of a magazine. Instead of yelling at me, like most homophobic parents, he was making fun of me, like, ‘Oh, you got yourself a girlfriend.'”

She recently told People: “It has nothing to do with what’s in your pants. It has nothing to do with what your XY chromosome makeup is, it’s literally just, what are you like as a person.”

Jackson also said: “I wouldn’t consider myself bisexual because I’ve dated more than just men and women.” 

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Although she had support from her father from a very young age, after he passed away she was raised by her Jehovah’s witness grandmother, Katherine Jackson, where she felt the need to keep her sexuality under the table.

“Homosexuality in general is very taboo in the Black community, so that on top of the religious aspect, it was something that I did feel like I needed to withhold for a while.”

She also stated that the first time she came out to a family member, they didn’t believe her, but she hasn’t let this stand in her way.

Jackson wants to continue to use the platform she was born with to not stay quiet, but to be loud and amplify activism to make change.