Watch: Janelle Monáe Offers Supportive Words to LGBTQ+ Viewers at Critics Choice Awards

Janelle Monáe sent out words of love to the LGBTQ+ community at the Critics Choice Awards, declaring, "I am non-binary, I am queer, and my identity influences my decisions and my work."

"The singer and Glass Onion actress, 37, received the seventh annual SeeHer Award at the Critics Choice Awards Sunday night, starting her speech by clarifying that her pronouns are "she/her, they/them and free-ass m-----f----r," People Magazine recounted.

The "Glass Onion" star went on to say that in their work, they seek "to highlight the ones who have been pushed to the margins of society, who've been outcast or relegated to 'the other.'"

That's personal to them, Monáe added, citing their family history: "My mother was a janitor, my father was a trash man, and my grandmother was a sharecropper in Aberdeen, Mississippi."

But more than that, "it's personal because I am non-binary, I am queer, and my identity influences my decisions and my work," Monáe went on to say.

Then they made the stirring speech even more personal.

"If you know my story, I wasn't supposed to make it out of Kansas City, Kansas, to be here tonight," the recording artist and movie star told the audience. "I didn't see the vision clearly for myself. I couldn't see my gift. I couldn't see what my purpose was supposed to be at that time."

"But thank you, God, so many other people did. They didn't give up on me, and they gave me opportunities despite my own lack of confidence. I was fakin' it till I made it."

Monáe asked viewers to find the "vision" that it took them so long to find for themself. "So to anyone out there like me watching right now," they said, "I just want you to know that I see you – but I challenge you to see you."

The SeeHer Award puts Monáe in distinguished company, People noted, with past winners including Halle Berry, Claire Foy, Gal Gadot, and Zendaya, among others.

In an interview with News 84 Media, Monáe talked about her role in the recent Netflix film "Glass Onion" in which she played not one, but two characters – twin sisters, one of whom ended up being murdered in the course of the movie.

"Anyone could have played these characters," Monáe opined. "But because I am Black, all of a sudden, it means something different. I wanted to show up and honor those women that we know who every single day are not believed, who have things taken from them, and who ultimately stand up and avenge their sister – even if it's not their biological sister."

When the subject of the film's main character, detective Benoit Blanc (played by Daniel Craig), being gay came up, Monáe told the publication, "I didn't know anything about Benoit's personal life and it was just a treat when I saw the film for the first time with Hugh Grant as his partner."

"I'm obviously part of the LGBTQI+ community and I felt proud," the actor added. "It just felt normal and I love that."

Taking note of the increasingly hostile legislative climate in the country, as GOP lawmakers hasten to pass bills targeting LGBTQ+ Americans, Monáe said: "It's just asinine, quite frankly, to still be having that conversation or to ever be having that conversation as though our queerness is a response to heteronormative behavior or heterosexual folks. We've existed throughout history."

"So my hope is that through art in general we can continue to show that representation and show the freedom and the love and the care in which we share our stories on screen and remind people of who we are and that we're here to stay," Monáe added.

Watch their comments at the Critics Choice Awards below (Note: Their comments about being queer start at about the 1:40 mark).