Joshua Rush, the 17-year-old star of the just-wrapped groundbreaking Disney Channel series Andi Mack, has come out as bisexual on Twitter.
Tweeted Rush: “first to respond to this tweet is bi lol. first! i win! it’s me. i’m bi. And now that I’ve said that, I have a few things to rant about. There are more important things to talk about than me liking a whole bunch of genders, but I do want to share a few things with you guys. I saw so many of you watch Cyrus come out and said ‘Hey! I can be me!’ How ironic, isn’t it, that me, playing that character, never had mustered up that courage? Instead of feeling the courage to tell you today that I am an out and proud bisexual man because of the character I played for four years, I feel that courage thinking of all of you, who felt emboldened by Cyrus to come out.”
Rush added: “I had a close friend of mine come out to me in fifth grade. FIFTH GRADE! That was well before I had any clue of my own identity and orientation. I suffered with some level of my own internalized homophobia even while playing the first openly gay character on Disney Channel. I stuffed the existential crisis of talking about my sexual orientation into a box in my mind for years. Today, I release it into the world. Being bi isn’t all of my identity, nor is it the most important part of my identity. Bi erasure and issues like it are important, but trans women of color still have a life expectancy of THIRTY FIVE YEARS and that is absolutely unacceptable.”
Rush then encouraged followers to donate to GLAAD and the Trevor Project and read GLAAD’s page on bisexuality.
Rush concluded by saying, “Thank you to you for giving me the courage to know who I am and tell you this today. Happy 20biteen”
