My Chemical Romance's former frontman Gerard Way has always been seen as an emo hero, always one to share his history with depression to help fans dealing with the same. While promoting his new solo album Hesitant Alien, the cult icon did a Reddit AMA that connected in a different way: by opening up about gender identity.

User mutiescum asked, "I’ve always been really inspired by your style and how you incorporate a lil bit of glam, a lil bit of femme into your aesthetic. In fact, the way you present on stage and in music videos helped me figure out my own gender identity as a teenager. Who are your style icons? What was your inspiration for messing with masculinity in the ways that you do?" Then Gerard responded in a touching and enlightening way.

"Wow! I'm so glad that helped in figuring out your gender identity. I have always been extremely sensitive to those that have gender identity issues as I feel like I have gone through it as well, if even on a smaller scale," the musician wrote. "I have always identified a fair amount with the female gender, and began at a certain point in MCR to express this through my look and performance style. So it's no surprise that all of my inspirations and style influences were pushing gender boundaries: Freddie Mercury, [David] Bowie, Iggy [Pop], early glam, T-Rex. Masculinity to me has always made me feel like it wasn't right for me."

Check out the rest of the AMA here and don't miss Fuse's own exclusive interview with Way, where he discusses his musical influences and life after MCR.