From Jolie to Bowie, there are lots of bis out there. Though they don’t all have names ending in -ie.
So let’s hear from people on bi+ sexuality… in all its myriad labels.
Kirsten Stewart told the Guardian in 2017, “You’re not confused if you’re bisexual. It’s not confusing at all. For me, it’s quite the opposite.” Damn right – as the old slogan has it, we’re bisexual, you’re confused.
Aubrey Plaza explained things in 2016 by saying: “I know I have an androgynous thing going on, and there’s something masculine about my energy. Girls are into me – that’s no secret. Hey, I’m into them too. I fall in love with girls and guys. I can’t help it.”
Instagram was the medium of choice for Lili Reinhart when she came out – promoting an LGBT+ Black Lives Matter demo and noting next to the image, “Although I’ve never announced it publicly before, I am a proud bisexual woman.”
Auliʻi Cravalho, best known as the voice actress star of Disney’s “Moana” came out as bisexual in a TikTok video. Very 2020!
Dominique Provost-Chalkley came out in a blog post: “I am queer. I am into ALL humans. I guess maybe I am just really into love? Who knows? But finally … I am OUT.”
Natalie Morales wrote in 2017. “I am not attracted specifically to any type of gender. I’m attracted to people. Each person is their own incredible, massive universe. That is what I am attracted to; that is what I want to know, want to love, want to defend, want to take care of.”
Jameela Jamil explained in 2020, “People are still kind of stuck in the linear and don’t understand the spectrum of sexuality… I guess I’m bisexual, but also quite fancy everyone. I don’t know if that means that I’m pansexual. But I don’t just fancy cis straight men; I fancy everyone.”
Rock legend David Bowie came out as bisexual and later went back in again, causing some to question whether it was a publicity stunt or for real. But his 1976 statement that “I am a bisexual […] I suppose it’s the best thing that ever happened to me” helped a lot of bis find their way out of the closet.
Dusty Springfield came out even earlier, explaining in 1970 that “I’m perfectly as capable of being swayed by a girl as by a boy. More and more people feel that way and I don’t see why I shouldn’t.”
True Blood star Anna Paquin came out in 2009, saying “For me, it’s not really an issue because I’m someone who believes being bisexual is actually a thing. It’s not made up. It’s not a lack of decision.”
Evan Rachel Wood has become a champion of bi representation after tweeting in 2012 that “I myself am bisexual”. Just four words and it’s out there.
Drew Barrymore came out back in 2003, saying, “Do I like women sexually? Yeah, I do. Totally. I have always considered myself bisexual.”
Amy Winehouse said that “There is something about being with a woman that is very satisfying. I don’t care what people think about me being bi — I do what feels good.”
“I love who I love…. I just feel like everyone’s always looking for a headline and they always want their magazine or TV show or whatever to be the one to break what my sexuality is.” – Demi Lovato in 2017 on the angst of being out as a celeb and being forever tagged with one side of who you are.
“I really like the term bisexual, and I fall somewhere under the umbrella that is bisexuality. I use the word bisexual because people have fought for so long for this word and the fact that it even exists in part of the LGBTI-etc is just a beautiful thing, and I’m not gonna be the person to take, like, fluidity or emotional fluidity or pansexual. I’m comfortable somewhere under the bisexual label, and I’m proud of it.” – Nico Tortorella pushing back against bi-erasure.
Sleater-Kinney guitarist Carrie Brownstein observed in 2012 that people think she’s gay but “no one’s actually ever asked me. People just always assume, like, you’re this or that. It’s like, ‘OK. I’m bisexual.’”
Megan Mullally explained her belief in almost everyone being bisexual, saying “…everybody is innately bisexual. I think there are different levels of awareness attached to that, so I may believe that everybody is innately bisexual, but somebody who is very homophobic may not see that quality in themselves in any way, shape or form. That’s on a very philosophical or even metaphysical level, you know what I mean? It’s not something that I think people are ready for yet. I think if you ask the average guy on the street if he was innately bisexual, he’d be like, ‘What the fuck are you talking about?’ and then he’d punch you in the face. So, we’re not quite there.”
REM singer Michael Stipe reflected his on coming out, saying, “I decided to publicly announce my sexuality. I said simply that I had enjoyed sex with men and women my entire adult life. It was a simple fact, and I’m happy I announced it.”
Sophie B Hawkins prefers the label omnisexual – one of many in the bi umbrella – and explains that for her it means “I absolutely can fall in love with any gender if I love the person’s mind, heart and soul.”
“I think I’ve always been bisexual. I mean, it’s something that I’ve always been interested in. I think everybody kind of fantasizes about the same sex. I think people are born bisexual, and it’s just that our parents and society kind of veer us off into this feeling of ‘Oh, I can’t.’ They say it’s taboo. It’s ingrained in our heads that it’s bad, when it’s not bad at all. It’s a very beautiful thing.” – Billie Joe Armstrong, singer with Green Day, in 1995.
Country star Vanessa Carlton came out at Nashville Pride in 2010, declaring from the stage that “I’ve never said this before, but I am a proud bisexual woman”. Not every coming out has the benefit of being to a crowd of 18,000 queers and allies.
Ke$ha came out in 2011, dodging the B word but making it plain enough: “I wouldn’t say I’m gay or straight -– I don’t like labeling things anyway. I just like people.”
Rapper Azealia Banks explained, “I’m bisexual, so it makes sense. But I don’t want to be that girl who says all gays necessarily hang out together, of course! I have people say to me, ‘Oh wow, my friend is gay, too,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, so?'”
“I think people are born bisexual and then make subconscious choices based on the pressures of society. I have no question in my mind about being bisexual. But I’m also a hypocrite: I would never date a girl who was bisexual, because that means they also sleep with men, and men are so dirty that I’d never want to sleep with a girl who had slept with a man.” – Megan Fox interviewed in 2001. A little internalised biphobia there?
Cynthia Nixon of Sex and the City fame protested about biphobia when coming out, explaining “I don’t pull out the ‘bisexual’ word because nobody likes the bisexuals. Everybody likes to dump on the bisexuals. We get no respect.”
Record producer Clive Davis came out in his autobiography, “The Soundtrack of My Life”, writing: After my second marriage failed, I met a man who was also grounded in music. Having only had loving relationships and sexual intimacy with women, I opened myself up to the possibility that I could have that with a male, and found that I could.” It’s never too late!
Riverdale and Stranger Things star Shannon Purser talked in 2018 about the importance of being out for others: “I just always think about what would I have needed as a kid, what would have meant a lot to me? If somebody can see me and feel less alone and more understood, than that’s it.”
Lady Gaga is often described as an ally in the press. But at a Q&A session at the Berghain Club in Berlin in 2013 she railed against this: “You know what? It’s not a lie that I am bisexual and I like women, and anyone that wants to twist this into ‘she says she’s bisexual for marketing,’ this is a fucking lie. This is who I am and who I have always been.”
Natalie Morales starred in Parks and Recreation and explained herself thus: “I am not attracted specifically to any type of gender. I’m attracted to people. Each person is their own incredible, massive universe. That is what I am attracted to; that is what I want to know, want to love, want to defend, want to take care of.”
Singer Tanerélle commented in 2018: “Being a bisexual woman, I typically tend to shy away from the use of pronouns in most of my music because I want the lyrics to be as fluid as me”.
Pansexual MP for Oxford Layla Moran explained love for anyone under the bi umbrella: “It doesn’t matter if they’re a man or a woman or gender non-conforming, it doesn’t matter if they identify as gay or not. In the end, these are all things that don’t matter – the thing that matters is the person, and that you love the person.”
Youtube and “Dance Moms” star JoJo Siwa explained their label: “I would say that I am pansexual, because that’s how I have always been my whole life is just like, my human is my human.”
Labels can feel hard for some people. “If there were to be anything close to what I feel it would be pan. I accept love in all forms and I give love. It’s just all love.” said Arienne Mandi (Dani in The L Word: Generation Q).
Schitts Creek actress Emily Hampshire shared on Instagram that she’d played a scene about pansexuality on the show five years before she realised that was the word for how she felt: “So… #truestory way back when we shot this scene I didn’t know what #pansexuality was😬🤷🏻♀️ CUT TO: 5 years later I find myself regularly explaining my own pansexuality to people with, “It’s like, I’m into the wine not the label”“