Former Democrat gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum came out as bisexual in an interview with Tamron Hall following an incident in March in which authorities responded to reports of a suspected drug overdose and discovered a nude, inebriated Gillum in a Miami hotel.
“I don’t identify as gay, but I do identify as bisexual. And that is something I have never shared publicly before,” the former Tallahassee mayor told Hall during the interview, his wife, R. Jai Gillum, alongside him:
His wife reportedly defended him, stating that bisexuality is widely misunderstood and expressed her belief that sexuality exists “on a spectrum.”
“All I care about is what’s between us and what agreement we make,” she said.
Gillum’s decision to come back into the national spotlight follows the March incident in which he and two men, one of whom was initially identified as an escort, were found in a South Beach hotel with drugs and vomit, strewn everywhere:
As Breitbart News reported:
Gillum and two men were found with three baggies of crystal meth inside a Mondrian South Beach Hotel room on March 13, according to a police report. The photos show several bottles of prescription medication spilled onto the floor, along with a blood pressure monitor on the run near the bed. Another photo shows a vomit-splattered pillow. Police revealed 26 photos in total.
The bodycam footage was heavily redacted with no sound. At one point in the video, police appear to question a naked man in the bathroom.
…
Police say one of the men, Aldo Mejias, had given his credit card to Travis Dyson, 30, to rent a room at the hotel and planned to meet up with him later. When Mejias came to the hotel room, he found Gillum vomiting in the bathroom and Dyson began vomiting and collapsed on the bed, according to a police report.
Gillum took a step out of the national spotlight after the incident and underwent rehabilitation.
“This has been a wake-up call for me,” Gillum said in a statement in March.
“Since my race for governor ended, I fell into a depression that has led to alcohol abuse. I witnessed my father suffer from alcoholism and I know the damaging effects it can have when untreated,” he added. “I also know that alcoholism is often a symptom of deeper struggles.”
He told Hall he cried every day after the incident and said he had no romantic relationship with Travis Dyson, the reported male escort.
“I would say, the reason why I went to that room is probably no different than how anybody might communicate with someone that they are in a friendship, relationship, whatever with,” he said.
“I understand very well what people assumed about that,” Gillum continued. “When that photo came out, I didn’t recognize the person on the floor. That was not anything more than a person being at their most vulnerable state. Unconscious, having given no consent and someone decided to use a moment where I was literally laying in my own vomit.”
“Everyone believes the absolute worst about that day. At this stage, I don’t have anything else to have to conceal,” he added.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) narrowly edged out Gillum in the state’s gubernatorial race by less than half a percentage point — 49.6 percent to Gillum’s 49.2 percent.
“Would it be hard? Absolutely,” Gillum said of the prospect of running for office again, adding, “But Donald Trump is President.”
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