Former Mayor of Tallahassee Andrew Gillum has recently revealed in an interview that he identifies as bisexual.
In a candid interview, Gillum, the former Democratic Party nominee for governor of Florida, told journalist Tamron Hall, “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.”
The emotional interview with Gillum, who was also a CNN contributor, highlighted on a February incident in which he was found “inebriated” by police who were responding to a “possible drug overdose” in a Miami hotel room Gillum checked in, according to a police report.
The police report stated that officers arrived at the scene just after midnight and found Gillum and Aldo Mejias in the hotel room.
At the time, Gillum, who was Tallahassee City Commissioner, apologized and announced that he would be entering rehab.
“Everyone believes the absolute worst about that day. At this stage, I don’t have anything else to have to conceal,” Gillum said in the interview.
“I literally got broken down to my most bare place, to the place where I wasn’t even sure that I wanted to live,” he added. “Not because of what I had done but because of everything that was being said about me.”
Gillum went on to say, “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,” adding, “something else had been assumed” about him based on the incident.
In November 2018, Gillum narrowly lost the Florida gubernatorial race to Republican Ron DeSantis, conceding after a protracted fight that included a statewide ballot recount. However, the campaign mad Gillum a household name in national Democratic politics.
