'American Idol' Star Says She 'Chose' To Be Straight After 2-Year Gay Stint

Less than a year after noting she “ doesn’t agree ” with the LGBTQ “lifestyle,” “American Idol” alum La’Porsha Renae made some startling claims about her own sexuality. 

Renae, who lost to Trent Harmon on the final season of “Idol,” responded to a Twitter user’s claims that she was homophobic early Wednesday. The 23-year-old singer quickly denied the accusation. 

But the Mississippi native didn’t stop there. When another Twitter user took issue with Renae deeming that being gay was a “choice,” she responded: 

Another Twitter user pressed her for clarification, to which she replied:

When another user refuted her claims that sexuality was a choice, Renae noted: 

Renae, who is gearing up for the release of her debut album, “Already All Ready,” had to backpedal last year after making controversial remarks about the LGBTQ community in an interview. 

In a conference call with reporters after her “American Idol” stint wrapped, Renae was asked about Mississippi’s House Bill 1523 , a “religious liberty” law that allows people with faith-based objections to deny wedding services to same-sex couples, Billboard reported . 

“I am one of the people who don’t really agree with that lifestyle. I wasn’t brought up that way. It wasn’t how I was raised,” Renae said at the time. The singer went on to disclose that she has “a lot of friends and a lot of people that I love dearly who are gay and homosexual and they’re such sweet, nice people.”

Renae took to Periscope just days later, where she apologized and attempted to clarify her comments. 

“I can understand when I read it back why people were offended and for that I deeply apologize because I wasn’t trying to offend anyone by what I said, I was just trying to honestly answer a question that actually caught me off-guard,” she said in the chat. “It was supposed to be an interview about singing, and it became political and I’m not a political person, at all.”

UPDATE March 8: Renae elaborated on her remarks in an email to The Huffington Post. 

“I decided to be heterosexual because I felt like that’s the life God intended me to live. My response to your skepticism is that many people walk many different strokes of life,” she wrote. “Some people believe they chose homosexuality and some believe they didn’t. Who’s to say one is wrong? It’s not fair to generalize anyone’s sexuality or walk of life.” 

She continued: 

Let people believe what they want to believe about themselves. Life can be a complex thing. It’s not always black or white. I took a journey and became more grounded in my faith, and decided that I wanted to live a heterosexual life. The main point I want people to take away from my Tweets is that we are all shaped by different experiences, and we should all love and respect one another. We don’t have to have the same truths or personal belief systems to love one another and get along. I have homosexual friends and family. I believe in God and Jesus, my christ and savior, yet i have CLOSE friends who are atheists, friends who are Muslims, friends who are Jewish, friends who are transgender and believe God gave them the wrong body... We ALL LOVE ONE ANOTHER... we don’t try to “convert” each other and we don’t CONDEMN each other for how different our walks of life are.

Everyone should have to right to believe in what they believe in and to live their lives the way they feel they want to. Me choosing to be straight does not in any way reflect on my love for homosexuals. I’ve been told that I’m a bigot, a hypocrite, a gay basher, a homophobic. I’m none of those things. I LOVE EVERYONE. ANYONE is welcome to hang out with me and have fun, or sit down with me and talk. I don’t discriminate against anyone. And I don’t condone hating someone or treating them badly because they live differently than I do. I so wish that people knew me for who I really am, but I don’t have that privilege. Social media takes a statement like, “Despite our different beliefs, we should be able to love and respect each other and treat each other with kindness” and turns it into “LaPorsha Renae Hates LGBTQ community.” 

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