“Maybe He Just Wanted To Be Free For Himself.” Andrew Gillum’s Coming Out As Bisexual Drives Some Conversation

Former Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum came out as bisexual on Monday during his first sit-down interview since March, when the police found him inebriated and unconscious in a South Beach Miami hotel room with two men. (Drugs were found at the scene, though Gillum denies he used illegal substances and was not arrested.) That incident prompted Gillum to seek treatment and generated speculation that the former Tallahassee mayor and married father of three was gay.

The scandal seemed like it could be a sad crescendo to the promising political career of a man who came within a percentage point of being Florida’s first Black governor in 2018. And it is anything but clear what his path forward as a politician may be. But it’s significant that Gillum saw coming out so publicly as valuable.

“To be very honest with you, when you didn’t ask the question, you put it out there, is whether or not I identify as gay,” he said to talk show host Tamron Hall. “And the answer is, I don’t identify as gay, but I do identify as bisexual. And that is something that I have never shared publicly before.”

He added, “The truth is, is that, Tamron, everyone believes the absolute worst about that day. At this stage, I don’t have anything else to have to conceal.”

News outlets have of course reacted to his coming out with several headlines, and many people have weighed in since the interview was aired.

One of such groups of people are the ladies of the web series, Cocktails With Queens. The hosts of the Youtube show, Claudia Jordan, Syleena Johnson, LisaRaye McCoy and Vivica A. Fox, recently sat down to talk about Gillum and his new public image as a bisexual man. And the conversation went many different ways.

McCoy began by suggesting Gillum would have been better off staying in the closet forever.

“You know what? I just, I think it’s so unfortunate because when you get busted, you know, and then you’re just forced to come on out with it, and it’s almost like he could’ve pleaded the fifth still,” the Single Ladies actress said, before going on to suggest that Gillum may not really bisexual, that he’s actually gay.

“Now he’s gotta come on out and say, well, you know what, I’m not completely, completely gay, I’m just bi,” she said, prompting some laughter from the other women.

Then Fox interjected, speaking out in support of sexual fluidity, saying it’s “the world we are living in.”

“People are fluid,” she remarked. “They are not afraid to love who they might want to that night, baby.”

Seconds later, however, Fox went on to slam men who mislead women into thinking they are “over here and then you come to find out they’re on both sides.” To which, McCoy responded by saying, “They gotta be outed! They gotta be busted!”

And when Fox wondered if this is a conversation women should have with prospective partners “where you kinda go, ‘OK, let’s just keep it real. Uh, have you ever had a bisexual experience?’ How does a person have that conversation?”, McCoy responded by saying women can test to see if their boyfriends and husbands are gay by “using your finger a little bit.” If the men react positively, she implied, it means they’re homosexual.

After they took another turn into talking about which of them has ever dated a man they thought was straight but later found out to be queer, Johnson voiced some compassion for Gillum’s plight.

“His sexuality and anything he’s doing behind closed doors as far as his sexuality is concerned, I just don’t feel that that would have made Andrew a poor leader,” Johnson said, referring perhaps to the Twitter backlash that came after Gillum was found in such a deplorable state back in March, with some of the outrage expressing relief that he wasn’t voted in as governor. “I still think that if Andrew would’ve won, he would have done better for Florida.”

She went on to say: “How many gay men or women have trouble coming out? This world…doesn’t really allow you to do that safely anyway. So he should not be judged just because he’s a politician. Unfortunately, he got caught the way he did, but at the end of the day, it’s still the same lifestyle. Sometimes, people are hiding those things because they’re afraid to come out. I can’t sit here and act like I know what it’s like to be living like that inside of myself and be afraid to come out… No matter if you’re a politician or a star or whatever the case may be, he’s a human being. So the fact that he did come out, even though he didn’t have to…because maybe he just wanted to be free for himself.”

The ladies went on to speculate about Hollywood figures who are living on the down low.

Check out their conversation below: