Former Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum (D) on Monday told daytime talk show host Tamron Hall that he identifies as bisexual.
Words never shared publicly until this moment #TamronHallShow “I identify as bisexual”. - @AndrewGillum
— Tamron Hall (@tamronhall) September 14, 2020
"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. 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," Gillum told Hall, a former NBC "Today" co-host, on Monday.
The former Tallahassee mayor checked into a rehab center six months ago for alcohol abuse after a suspected meth incident in a Miami hotel room in February.
Gillum was found passed out at the Mondrian South Beach hotel in Miami Beach along with another man who was taken to a hospital for a drug overdose. Gillum said he had been drinking but didn't recall taking any drugs.
"Everyone believes the absolute worst about that day. At this stage, I don't have anything else to have to conceal," Gillum told Hall. "I literally got broken down to my most bare place, to the place where I wasn't even sure that I wanted to live. Not because of what I had done but because of everything that was being said about me."
"What was most hurtful was this belief that I was somehow living a lie in my marriage and in my family. That was the most hurtful to me. Because I believe we are all entitled to mistakes, and I believe we are entitled to those mistakes without having every other respectable and redeeming part of our lives invalidated."
Gillum was a CNN contributor until stepping down from the role following the Miami Beach incident.
The 41-year-old narrowing lost to now-Gov. Ron DeSantis
Ron DeSantisDeSantis easily defeats Rubio, Scott in hypothetical presidential primary: poll Florida official tells offices to disregard DeSantis order to lower flags in Limbaugh's honor New York's deadly nursing home scandal: Politics overruled science MORE (R) in the Sunshine State's gubernatorial race in 2018, 49.59 percent to 49.19 percent.
