Andrew Gillum Comes Out As Bisexual After Fallout From Hotel Incident
Former Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum publicly opened up about his sexuality this week for the first time.
“I don’t identify as gay, but I do identify as bisexual,” Gillum, 41, said in an interview on “The Tamron Hall Show” that aired Monday. “And that is something that I’ve never shared publicly before.”
Words never shared publicly until this moment #TamronHallShow “I identify as bisexual”. - @AndrewGillum
— Tamron Hall (@tamronhall) September 14, 2020
The former mayor of Tallahassee appeared on the show alongside his wife, R. Jai, who said her husband of 11 years has been upfront with her about his sexuality.
“Many people just don’t understand bisexuality,” she said. “They think they can wrap their heads around ‘gay,’ but bisexuality is something different. ... All I care about is what’s between us and what agreement we make.”
Gillum, who ran for Florida governor in 2018, had been dogged by speculation surrounding his private life for months.
The father of three was found intoxicated in a Miami Beach hotel room with two men March 12. According to police reports, officers arrived on the scene in response to a possible drug overdose involving one of the men, Travis Dyson.
Here's the video of this moment: pic.twitter.com/prUW7NPk1C
— The Recount (@therecount) September 14, 2020
Police said they impounded three small plastic bags “containing suspected crystal meth” from the hotel room. Dyson, 30, reputedly worked as a male escort. The third man, 56-year-old Aldo Mejias, told The New York Times he and Dyson were longtime friends, but that he did not know Gillum personally.
At the time, Gillum ― who was Florida’s first Black gubernatorial nomineebefore losing to Ron DeSantis (R) by about 32,000 votes ― said he was visiting Miami for a wedding, and denied using crystal meth.
Days later, he released a statement calling the incident “a wake-up call,” and said he was...
