Andrew Gillum, former Democratic candidate for governor in Florida, revealed that he identifies as bisexual in an interview released on Sept. 14.

Gillum told journalist Tamron Hall, “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.”

“As for why he decided to share the information, Gillum said, “At this stage, I don’t have anything else to have to conceal. 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.”

Gillum’s interview with Hall focused on an incident in February this year in which the politician was found “inebriated” by police responding to a “possible drug overdose.” The police said that they found Gillum just after midnight with another person, Aldo Mejias. Gillum apologized for the incident at the time and announced he would enter rehab.

Gillum told Hall it was hurtful to not be entitled to make mistakes and to have “every other respectable and redeeming part” of himself invalidated. He added that “something else had been assumed” about him after the incident.

Gillum lost Florida’s gubernatorial seat in November 2018 to Republican Ron DeSantis in a close race that included a ballot recount statewide. Before that, he was Tallahassee’s mayor from 2014 to 2018 and a city commissioner from 2003 to 2014.

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