Jena Malone is sharing her journey coming out as pansexual.
Accompanied by a video of her dancing to the song "Book of Bringhi," the "Hunger Games" actor said that she felt like a "heterosexual man in a woman's body."
"I visualized his desires and placed them on to me," she wrote. "But this, was never the whole of the story that was meant for me. So I’ve been learning a new way to tell it. Using words to guide me not define me. That my sexual identity has more to teach and to tell me. Finding words that feel more right to explore in my telling. Pansexuality. Sapiosexuality. Polyamory. A fuller spectrum of understanding that my story is demanding of me. And I’m honoring it today with this soft and sleepy little stretch of a dance."
Malone added, "I love humans. So there's that," along with red hearts and flags representing the LGBTQ community.
The star said she intended to publish the post on Pansexual Awareness Day, which is May 24, but explained that she's a mom and "always a few months late for everything." (Malone has a six-year-old daughter named Ode Mountain.)
Malone told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview that coming out "felt so nice." She added, "I’ve been thinking about it for a while. The sexual journey is so beautiful."
"It’s a part of humanity now to have all these ceremonies of exclamation around coming out and renouncing (an identity) and celebrating that space for yourself. It’s a really sweet, human experience. I love getting to learn more about myself no matter the age or my experience," Malone, 37, told the publication.
She explained that her unique family dynamic aided in creating "different types of conversations" concerning sexuality and that she's "blessed" to have such accepting loved ones.
"My sister is queer and I grew up with two moms who were lovers and then they split. My mom sort of became hetero again, mostly through an understanding of Christianity. And then my god mom married her partner of 17 years now. So, I have three moms and my dad who has been a hetero man all his life," she said.
Malone formerly portrayed Johanna Mason in "The Hunger Games," among other notable roles in "Donnie Darko," "Stepmom," "Pride & Prejudice," "Contact" and "Into the Wild."
According to LGBTQ media advocacy organization GLAAD, a person who is considered pansexual "has the capacity to form enduring physical, romantic, and/or emotional attractions to those of any or all genders."
The organization noted that people who identify as bisexual are attracted to more than one gender. Meanwhile, those who are pansexual could be attracted to all gender identities or to all people regardless of gender identity.
Over recent years, more celebrities have opened up about their sexualities, with several also coming out as pansexual, including Demi Lovato, Miley Cyrus, JoJo Siwa, Cara Delevingne, Brendon Urie, Janelle Monáe and Madison Bailey.
In the 2019 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health, which studied tens of thousands of LGBTQ young people from ages 13 to 24 across the U.S., the Trevor Project reported that one in five LGBTQ young people uses a term other than lesbian, gay or bisexual to describe their sexual orientation. Both pansexual and panromantic asexual were among the over 100 sexual orientations with which participants identified.
