Andrew Gillum, a former Democratic candidate for governor of Florida, revealed in an interview with Tamron Hall Monday that he identifies as bisexual. The former mayor of Tallahassee opened up about his sexuality when asked by Hall on her talk show. “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,” Gillum said during Monday’s episode.
Much of Hall’s interview with Gillum focused on a February incident in which he was found “inebriated” by police responding to a “possible drug overdose” in a Miami hotel room where he and a second person, Aldo Mejias, were found, according to a police report obtained at the time by CNN. Police did not pursue criminal charges, and Gillum announced the next month as part of a public apology that he would be entering rehab.
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While Gillum said everyone believes the “absolute worst” about that day, he has nothing else to “conceal” about the difficult time in his life. “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,” he explained. “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.”
Gillum revealed he sank into a depression after losing the 2018 governor’s race to current Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis by fewer than 35,000 votes, beginning to drink heavily throughout the day, including putting whiskey in his morning coffee. After police found crystal methamphetamine in the hotel room, Gillum denied using any illegal drug use while apologizing for drinking too much. “While I had too much to drink, I want to be clear that I have never used methamphetamines,” Gillum said in a March statement. “I apologize to the people of Florida for the distraction this has caused our movement.”
