But here's something "Andi Mack"-related that just happened. Joshua Rush -- the 17-year-old actor who portrays Cyrus on the program and whose character began the slow process of coming out last season -- just came out as bisexual!
It all went down on Twitter two days ago. Rush tweeted: "First to respond to this tweet is bi lol." Followed quickly by "first! i win! 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 wnat 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 that 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... Thank you to you for giving me the courage to know who I am and tell you this today.
Happy 20biteen!