Joshua Rush — the 17-year-old actor who played Cyrus Goodman, the first Disney character ever to say the words “I’m gay” — recently came out as bisexual.
You may recall that in October 2017 Rush participated in the Disney Channel’s first-ever coming-out scene when his character in the pre-teen drama series Andi Mack revealed his crush on a boy. Although the show subsequently left Goodman’s sexuality mostly unexplored, in February 2019 his character actually uttered the words “I’m gay” in another groundbreaking first for the channel.
But Rush himself had never publicly declared his own same-sex attraction … until just yesterday.
In a Twitter thread, he wrote:
How about we take this to the next level?
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first! i win! it’s me. i’m bi. And now that I’ve said that, I have a few things to rant about. There are more important things to talk about than me liking a whole bunch of genders, but I do want to share a few things with you guys.
I saw so many of you watch Cyrus come out and said “Hey! I can be me!”
How ironic, isn’t it, that me, playing that character, never had mustered up that courage?
Instead of feeling the courage to tell you today that I am an out and proud bisexual man because of the character I played for four years, I feel that courage thinking of all of you, who felt emboldened by Cyrus to come out.
I had a close friend of mine come out to me in fifth grade. FIFTH GRADE! That was well before I had any clue of my own identity and orientation. I suffered with some level of my own internalized homophobia even while playing the first openly gay character on Disney Channel.
I stuffed the existential crisis of talking about my sexual orientation into a box in my mind for years. Today, I release it into the world.
Being bi isn’t all of my identity, nor is it the most important part of my identity. Bi erasure and issues like it are important, but trans women of color still have a life expectancy of THIRTY FIVE YEARS and that is absolutely unacceptable …
Thank you to you for giving me the courage to know who I am and tell you this today. Happy 20biteen!
He then encouraged his followers to donate to The Trevor Project and GLAAD and to read GLAAD’s page on bisexuality.
Rush’s coming out and education on bi issues are great for other bi people, for visibility’s sake and to help reduce biphobia.
In a 2018 profile of Dr. Brian Dodge, a lead researcher on bisexuality and the health disparities they face, Dodge said “the vast majority” of biphobia he faces comes from gay and lesbian people.
A 2013 Pew survey found that bisexual people come out at rates three times less often than gay men, have four times fewer LGBTQ-identified friends than gay men and report higher levels of societal mistrust than gay men. This is because of “monosexism” — prejudice against those who are attracted to more than one gender —and negative stereotypes that cast bi people as confused, deceitful, ultra-slutty or trying to benefit from “straight/passing privilege.”
As a result, research suggests that bi people stay closeted because of the discrimination they face from other queer people and face more health disparities and mental illness than gay people.
By education people on bi issues, Rush is doing his part to help reduce anti-bi stigma while possibly saving a few queer youngsters’ lives in the process.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Amazing kid, has more empathy, common sense, and wisdom than the entire leadership of the Repugnatican party…
Good on him!!
Gay Veteran
This is great! He seems like such a smart guy. I hope he has a great career. This is probably the queerest Hollywood has ever been from the entire cast of Pose to Disney stars, it’s great.
Mack
I maybe wrong but I thought he came out as “gay” last year when the show he was on portrayed him as a “gay character”.
Cam
Seems like somebody at Disney didn’t want him out.
They didn’t give his character an actual gay storyline until the last episode, and he didn’t come out until after the show was cancelled. Sounds like somebody higher up there doesn’t like the gays.
Selverd
Yes, it’s not like they cast Billy Eichner as Timon in the new Lion King, or cast Rosie O’Donnell in Jake and the Never Land Pirates, or cast Cheyenne Jackson as Hades in Descendants, or gave Raven-Symone a new show, or anything like that.
ShowMeGuy
The show was called ANDI MACK not CYRUS IS GAY.
Also, the show probably pumped the brakes on any further storyline advancement about the sexuality of Cyrus, in part of not wanting to feed the trolls due to another actor on the show getting into trouble with “underage” individuals. Child molesters on set of a show targeting tweens is not good for business and THEN to be running a storyline about “controversial” sexuality issues would be a double shot against a family entertainment company.
If a certain someone had avoided the chicken nuggets on Grindr, maybe Cyrus and his gay life could have been fully put through the Disneyfication machine and seen more light of day.
Selverd
I don’t think the storyline was affected. they did reshoots to remove the father from the unaired episodes (one ep was scrapped entirely) but most if not all of the season was already filmed beforehand.
Cam
@Selverd
And you’ll have to remind me…..hmmm, were they famous before they were cast by Disney? That would be a yes. Oh, and are any of the characters they voice LGBTQ?
Ooooops, gues not.
Selverd
@Cam So what’s your argument? That they’re okay with casting queer actors and having queer characters, but they draw the line at having a queer actor playing a queer character?
Cam
@Selverd
Sweetie, it’s cute when you try to ignore one part of a posting to troll.
Disney is fine hiring famous people, and additionally none of them played queer did they?
Selverd
@Cam I’m trolling because I don’t subscribe to your tinhatting? Your argument makes zero sense, if they’re okay with hiring queer actors for other roles why would they stop Josh from coming out? And Raven-Symone is hardly a big name.
And you’re acting like Josh only came out because he’s no longer at Disney, ignoring that he’s still doing their Lion Guard show.
ShiningSex
LOL….BI???? you mean GAY. He’s a total queen
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
WOW!! Picking on a 17 year old kid who takes a brave courageous stand to be an inspiration and example for other kids!!!
Bet you feel REALLY GOOD right about now…..
curiobi
He’s a child FFS, and in these unforgiving times of harsh jerks like you on social media and the internet coming out is nothing short of brave. Lay of the kid and do better! -He needs and deserves support, not bitchy, uncalled for criticism.
Donston
I’m honestly uncomfortable with anyone under 30 fully embracing an orientation identity, especially teenagers. If you say you’re “gay” at too young of an age and fluidity kicks in or you merely decide to at least try to date someone of your opposite gender then you get seen as someone self-rejecting. If you embrace a “bi” identity at a young age and then develop solely same-sex attractions later on or admit that you simply don’t feel overall “bi enough” to be comfortable with a full-on bi identity and “bi pride” then you get seen as “bi-erasing”. Or as someone who was just using a bi identity as a transition. Or as someone who took a while to be comfortable being seen as “gay”. But ultimately, you can’t force people to stay away from an identity they wish to embrace.
On the other hand, being a “queen” does not equate to being homosexual/homo-leaning/homo-romantic/gay. There are plenty of effeminate males who have some attractions towards women and even some who are overall romantically/sexually/emotionally/relationship-wise female leaning. While trying to shame people into a “gay” identity (or trying to shame people into any identity) doesn’t actually help anyone be comfortable being seen as “gay” or be comfortable with themselves in general. It only helps make gay-identifying men look like bitter, insensitive “queens” who don’t understand that everyone has their own sense of self and their own journey. It also eggs on things like internalized homophobia, gay shame, self-misandry, obsessions with retaining hetero-normalcy and hetero appeal, and bi superiority or victim complexes. So, your post ultimately does more harm than good. But being a bitter, antagonizing “queen” is sort of your MO.
ShowMeGuy
Donston…….I bet you don’t think twice about straight teenagers or tweens exploring their heterosexual identities.
armandov
May not be too far off the mark. While I know that true bisexuals exist (although its usually women b/c females are more sexually fluid) , its not common for a guy to be truly bi. Every single man I have ever met over the past 20 years who said he was bi, never ever once dated a woman ever again after he came out as such.
Its great whether he comes out as bi or gay but I honestly thinking saying you are bi has far fewer baggage attached to it. Its easier, os people go with it
Rock-N-RollHS
Coming out can only be a good thing, but this narrative that minor celebrities coming out saves lives is a nice fantasy. If you are so close to suicide, it’s your community (including family and friends) and immediate available resources that save lives. Not celebrities.
Cam
Except that is exactly what happens. A minor celeb isn’t minor to the people who watch their show.
But then again, you regularly defend Republican bigots on here so it doesn’t surprise me that you are trying to subtly downplay the benefits of people coming out.