Fifth Harmony’s Lauren Jauregui was warned not to come out by her friends and family

Lauren Jauregui was told by friends and family not to come out.

The Fifth Harmony member and fellow bisexual singer Halsey released a love song called Strangers earlier this year which is believed to be the first same-sex love duet to hit mainstream radio.

But Jauregui, who came out as bisexual in a powerful open letter to Trump supporters after November’s election, said it was common for musicians to be told not to reveal their sexuality.

“A lot of artists are held back by the notion that they’ll lose their fan base or alienate themselves,” she said.

“Even friends and family would tell me to keep it to myself. But the more I thought about it, the more I was like, ‘Why?’” Jauregui told Out Magazine in an interview released during Bisexual Awareness Week.

The Cuban-American star also revealed that she had a crush on another girl in high school while growing up in Miami, but felt too guilty to act on her feelings.

“I was in a Latin household and part of a Catholic community,” she said. “What was I going to do?”

That’s all behind Jauregui now, though, who hits out at anyone judging her for being bisexual.

“People still talk shit,” she said. “But it’s like, why does it make you feel gross? You can watch a kid get bombed and not do anything about it, but you can’t watch me kiss my girlfriend? Go fuck yourself.”

The singer also revealed that Strangers was originally going to be a heterosexual love song, until Halsey sent her a history-altering message.

Lauren and Halsey

“I got a text from her: ‘Hey, babe, you can totally shut this down, but I was thinking we could switch the pronouns,’” Jauregui said.

“I was like: ‘Bitch, I was thinking the same thing!’”

Jauregui has also shown her fearless streak in the political arena, using her words and music to condemn the President. The star slammed Trump as “disgusting” following his decision to ban trans people from the military and his reaction to white supremacists marching in Charlottesville.

On Fifth Harmony’s new self-titled album, a track called Bridges stands out as a clear anti-Trump protest song. The key lyrics are “we build bridges / Bridges, not walls,” as the band uses the popular line from protests to stand against all of the administration’s divisive policies, including the proposed multi-billion-dollar US-Mexico border wall.