JoJo Siwa Responds to Backlash Over Comments About the Word 'Lesbian'

JoJo Siwa has been receiving backlash after she said in a recent interview that she does not like the word "lesbian." She took to TikTok over the weekend to clarify her comments.

Fans were upset at Siwa in her interview with Yahoo Life last week for her reply to a question about her sexuality. She told the outlet, "I don't like the word itself. It's just like lesbian, it's just like a lot. But at the end of the day, that's what I am."

The former-Dance Moms star then went to compare the word to "moist."

After the interview aired, TikTok and Twitter users began calling her out.

"Lesbian is not a dirty word and the stigma needs to be unlearned BADLY," wrote Twitter user butchryouma.

"JoJo Siwa telling the millions of underage girls who look up to her that she feels disgusted by the word 'lesbian' is really annoying," user femfrau wrote.

In a TikTok on Friday addressing the backlash, Siwa responded to a comment from user @that_akward_mango who said, "That is not what happened, she called it a dirty word. She did nothing but insult us, my sexuality is not a dirty word."

In her video, the Dancing with the Stars runner-up said, "I never said that lesbian was a dirty word and I never, ever would say that it's a dirty word because it is not."

The 19-year-old continued in her video, saying, "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."

"I don't hate the word lesbian, I just - whenever somebody talks to me about my sexuality, I just say that I'm gay," she said, adding, "It's not the word that flows off the tongue for me if that makes sense."

Siwa publicly came out in an Instagram Live video in January 2021. Since then she has been labeled as a "gay icon" for her openness with her sexuality and for being a role model queer youth.