La’Porsha Renae Clarifies LGBT Comments, Responds To Trent Harmon Winning ‘American Idol’

It’s been a few days since the “American Idol” Season 15 finale, and runner-up La’Porsha Renae took a few moments to address her fans. The McComb, Mississippi, native apologized for comments she made in an interview about the LGBT community and also commented on Trent Harmon winning.

La’Porsha caused a bit of controversy this week after she admitted that she doesn’t agree with homosexuality. The 22-year-old singer explained in a Periscope Q&A with fans that the reporter’s question caught her off-guard, but she didn’t mean to offend anyone.

“I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. So, I tried to be as open and honest and neutral as possible, but that’s the way interviews go. Sometimes when you do interviews, it gets twisted up,” she explained. “I can understand when I read it back why people were offended, and for that I deeply apologize. I wasn’t trying to offend anyone. I was just trying to honestly answer a question that caught me off guard. It was supposed to be an interview about singing, and it became political and I’m not a political person at all.”

According to Perez Hilton, La’Porsha was asked during a conference call interview with reporters if she’s been keeping up with Mississippi’s anti-LGBT controversy. The single mother said she wasn’t aware of it and then shared her thoughts on the subject. “They are people just like us. They’re not animals as someone stated before. They’re people with feelings,” she said, adding, “I am one of the people who don’t really agree with that lifestyle … But I do have 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. We should respect each other’s differences and opinions and move on.”

In addition to clarifying her remarks, La’Porsha told fans that she’s “very proud” of Trent and happy he won. “They’re taking him in a good direction,” she said. “Us both coming from Mississippi, I just wanted both of us to have a chance, and both of us did get a chance.”

As previously reported, La’Porsha recently dished on her debut album, telling outlets, including Billboard, that she didn’t want to box herself into a particular genre of music. “I have a lot of written material, and all of it’s different,” she explained. “Some records that I have are country, some pop, some alternative rock. I just write what I feel, so I can’t specifically say. I just want to be an artist, and an artist that stays true to herself.”