When it comes to her thoughts on the word "lesbian," Jojo Siwa would like to hold the drama, please.
The Dancing With the Stars alum, 19, found herself receiving backlash online after she said in a July 25 Yahoo Life interview that she doesn't like "the word itself." Now, Jojo, who came out as a member of the LGBTQ+ community last year, is clarifying her remarks.
"I've been going through my comments and I just want to make something super clear: I never said that lesbian was a dirty word and I never, ever would say it was a dirty word because it is not," she said in a July 29 TikTok. "It is not a bad word. It is not a slur and it is especially not a word that I am ashamed of saying or ashamed of identifying as by any means."
The Dance Moms star, who is currently in a relationship with Kylie Prew, explained that she didn't have a problem with the word or its connotation, but rather the sound of it.
"I don't hate the word 'lesbian,' I just—whenever someone talks to me about my sexuality, I just say that I'm gay," she said. "It's not the word that flows off the tongue for me if that makes sense."
Alongside the video, which was set to the tune of Lady Gaga's 2011 hit "Born This Way," Jojo also included the caption, "[Neither] my sexuality nor ANYONES is a dirty word."
In the video's comment section, Jojo's fans quickly rallied behind her and how she chooses to express herself. One wrote, "I feel like people blew this way out of proportion."
While a second fan added, "Some people need to understand the difference between not preferring a word versus not respecting the word."
In the Yahoo Life interview, Jojo said the word "lesbian" was "just like, a lot" but that "at the end of the day, that's what I am."
She added, "It's like the word moist. It's just like...ugh!"