Katy Perry opens up about her sexuality, 'I was curious'

— -- Katy Perry is opening up about her sexuality.

The "I Kissed a Girl" singer revealed her sexual fluidity while accepting the National Equality Award at the Human Rights Campaign's gala dinner in Los Angeles on Saturday night.

"I'm just a singer-songwriter honestly. I speak my truths and I paint my fantasies into these bite-sized pop songs. For instance, 'I kissed a girl and I liked it,'" she said, referring to her 2008 hit single. "Truth be told ... I did more than that!"

"What I did know was that I was curious," the singer continued, "and even then I knew that sexuality was not as black and white as this dress."

"But in 2008, when that song came out, I knew that it started a conversation, that a lot of the world seemed curious enough to sing along to it," Perry, 32, added to applause.

The daughter of two pastors, Keith and Mary Hudson, then used her acceptance speech to talk about her religious upbringing.

"When I was growing up, homosexuality was synonymous with the word 'abomination' and 'hell,'" she said.

Perry added that she then "prayed the gay away at my Jesus camps."

Ultimately, the singer said she was fortunate to meet different kinds of people who challenged what she had been taught.

"These people were nothing like I had been taught to fear," Perry said. "They were the most free, strong, kind, and inclusive people that I have ever met."

Concluding her lengthy speech, Perry said, "I stand here as real evidence for all, that no matter where you came from, it is about where you are going -- that real change, real evolution, and that real perception shift can happen, if we open our minds and soften our hearts."