Sam Smith recalls being 'spat at on the street' after coming out as non-binary

English singer-songwriter Sam Smith, who hails from London, recently revealed in an interview that while his friends and family have been really supportive since the time he came out of the closet as a non-binary person, he has had his share of struggles with homophobic people. The 30-year-old opened up about their experience since changing their pronouns from 'he/him' to 'they/them', saying that they find the negative reaction to their identity quite "exhausting".

For those unaware, Smith came out as non-binary in 2019.

In an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, the Grammy Award winner said, "My family, they can communicate with me. They always did. But they communicate with me now in an even better way. My love life has become better from it. I feel lovable. I feel comfortable in my skin, but I wear what I want to wear."

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He added, "Since changing my pronouns, it felt like a coming home."

Even though things were great at home, the recent 'Saturday Night Live'musical guest, unfortunately, had to face transphobia in their home country.

Shedding light on the same, the singer said, "I think all the only negatives in the struggle have been in my public life and my job," before adding, "And just the amount of hate and sh*tiness that came my way was just exhausting. And it was really hard and it's not like, this isn't me sitting at home Googling my name. It was in the f***ing news."

"It was hard not to look. But for me, I can deal with not Googling myself, and not reading comments. That's something I can control," they continued. "What people don't realize with trans, non-binary people in the UK is, it's happening in the street."

Giving an example of a personal "sad" experience that left him startled, Smith said, "I'm being abused in the street verbally more than I ever have. So,the hardest partI think was being at home in the UK and having people shouting at me in the street. Someone even spat at me in the street."

Smith also highlighted how hard it's for trans and non-binary people, who don’t have similar privileges as them, to live and be themselves in the United Kingdom.

"What I find hard about it is it's like, if that's happening to me and I'm famous, I'm a pop star, can you imagine what other kids, like queer kids are feeling?" Smith said. "And it's just so sad that we're in 2023 and it's still happening. It's exhausting and especially in England."

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