According to Lili Reinhart, she didn’t want to come out as bisexual to the public because she felt it was “becoming a trend” in Hollywood.
“I didn’t want to come out and talk about it because I felt that bisexuality was becoming a trend [among celebrities],” she recently explained to Nylon. “But I’ve supported the LGBTQ community since I was a little tween, and it just felt organic. I was like, ‘F**k it. Now’s the time. It’s not something I’m ashamed of. Hey, you. I’m going to be at this protest for LGBTQs for BLM. Come join me.’”
For those who missed it, the Riverdale star came out as bisexual back in June, as a way to urge people to get out and protest amid the Black Lives Matter movement. She took to her Instagram Stories on June 3, 2020, to post information about a LGBTQ+ march in protest of George Floyd‘s tragic death, and in doing so, she opened up about her sexuality.
“Although I’ve never announced it publicly before, I am a proud bisexual woman,” she wrote at the time. “I will be joining this protest today. Come join.”
“I remember being in fifth grade. I was waiting for my bus. I remember this so weirdly and vividly, just standing by myself going, ‘Do I like girls?’ I don’t even know where it came from or why. I remember looking at this article — I think it was in Cosmo — that asked ‘Do you want to be with that woman that you’re looking at, or do you want to be her?’ I was like, ‘I would like to be her, because she’s a sexy, amazing woman, but I also want to be with her,'” Lili continued during the new interview. “I didn’t date girls until I was… right now. I’d been with a girl when I was 18. This part of my life was never intentionally hidden. My friends and family knew. My cast members knew.”
Previously the 23-year-old — who was in a relationship with Cole Sprouse for almost three years before they split in March 2020 — opened up about her sexuality to The Los Angeles Times.
“I thought, ‘Do I like girls? I don’t know.’ As I’ve gotten older, the answer has become, ‘Yes. Clearly, I do,’” she explained. “I think I just felt at this point in time: Why not? If suddenly I started dating a girl publicly, I didn’t want people to be like, ‘What the?’ Not that I would even owe anyone an explanation. Because I don’t.”
She also got real about her decision to come out to Fault Magazine, telling them, “I knew full well that I was attracted to women from a young age. I felt that since I’ve exclusively been in hetero-normative relationships, it would be too easy for any outsider, especially the media, to vilify me and accuse me of faking it to get attention. That’s not something I wanted to deal with. But to my close friends, and those in my life, my bisexuality has been no secret.”
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