Katy Perry was not "allowed to interact with gay people" when she was younger

She said: "The schools were really makeshift. Education was not the first priority. My education started in my 20s, and there is so much to learn still.

"[I was not] allowed to interact with gay people [and] there is some generational racism.

"But I came out of the womb asking questions, curious from day one, and I am really grateful for that: My curiosity has led me here. Anything I don't understand, I will just ask questions about."

The 32-year-old singer also admitted she used to "picket" Marilyn Manson and Madonna shows with her family in order to voice their disapproval of the shows.

She admitted to America's Vogue magazine: "We knew about Madonna and Marilyn Manson in my family because we picketed their concerts."

But she ended up going to watch Manson perform in Santa Barbara with her youth pastor and found the show "really interesting and weird".

She added: "I got it. But my house was church on Sunday morning, church on Sunday night, church on Wednesday evening; you don't celebrate Halloween; Jesus gives you your Christmas presents; we watch Bill O'Reilly on TV. That was my whole childhood and youth and early teens. I still have conditioned layers dropping off of me by the day."

When Katy was 15, she heard music by Queen for the first time and it changed her life.

She recalled: "I had never heard such an imaginative explanation of how to live. That was my first perspective on that world, and I just loved it. I felt so free and accepted."