Culture

Raven-Symone Talks Relationships & Labels With Oprah

ELIXHER
On October 6, 2014

Last night on Oprah’s Where Are They Now, child star Raven-Symoné addressed the marriage tweet that had Twitter abuzz. Last year, the actress posted, ”I can finally get married! Yay government! So proud of you.” Folks speculated that she was referring to the Supreme Court marriage equality decisions.

In her interview, Oprah asked if this was her way of saying she is gay, to which Raven responds:

“That was my way of saying I’m proud of the country,” she says. “But, I will say that I’m in an amazing, happy relationship with my partner. A woman.”

A photo of Raven and out model AzMarie smiling flashes across the screen. (AzMarie graced the inaugural issue of ELIXHER Magazine.)

“People in my family, they’ve taught me to keep my personal life to myself as much as possible. So, I try my best to hold the fence where I can,” Raven continues. “But I am proud to be who I am and what I am.”

The actress says she has known who she is before she was even a teenager. “In that topic of dating… I knew when I was, like, 12,” she tells Oprah. “I was looking at everything,” she adds when Oprah asks if it was girls or boys that she was attracted to.

Raven-Symoné goes on to explain how she does not want to be labeled as gay. In fact, she does not want to be labeled as anything. We can (and have to) totally respect that.

“I don’t want to be labeled ‘gay,’” says the Louisiana native. “I want to be labeled ‘a human who loves humans.’”

Her comments on race and having a “nice grade of hair” admittedly give us some pause.

“I’m tired of being labeled,” she says. “I’m an American. I’m not an African-American; I’m an American.” When Oprah asks her to clarify she adds:

“I mean, I don’t know where my roots go to. I don’t know how far back they go… I don’t know what country in Africa I’m from, but I do know that my roots are in Louisiana. I’m an American. And that’s a colorless person.”

“You’re going to get a lot of flack for saying you’re not African-American. You know that, right?” Oprah asks.

“I don’t label myself,” she restates. “I have darker skin. I have a nice, interesting grade of hair. I connect with Caucasian, I connect with Asian, I connect with black, I connect with Indian, I connect with each culture.”

What do you think of Raven’s remarks about labels? How do you feel about labels?

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