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Joshua Rush just came out as bisexual in a moving message to his fans.
In a series of tweets on Tuesday, the 17-year-old Andi Mack actor—who played Cyrus on the Disney Channel series, the TV network’s first LGBTQ character—opened up to his followers about his sexuality.
“first to respond to this tweet is bi lol,” Rush tweeted, before replying to his post. “first! i win! it’s me. 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 want 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?” Rush continued. “Instead of feeling the courage to tell you today that I am an out and proud bisexual man because of the 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,” Rush went on to tell his followers. “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,” Rush wrote. “Being bi isn’t all of my identity, nor is it the most important part of my identity. Bi erasure and issues like it are important, but trans women of color still have a life expectancy of THIRTY FIVE YEARS and that is absolutely unacceptable.”
Rush went on to encourage his followers to donate to GLAAD.
“Our show wouldn’t have existed in the form that it did without them, but also because their hard work in furthering acceptance in media helps an uncountable number of people,” he tweeted. “I also want to encourage you to read their page on bisexuality. It has been incredibly helpful to me, and their resources have helped me to find where I fit on the spectrum of sexuality.”
“I also want to ask you to donate to The Trevor Project, who are literally saving lives every day,” Rush said. “Helping young LGBTQ+ voices feel heard and loved is utterly crucial.”
“Thank you to you for giving me the courage to know who I am and tell you this today,” Rush concluded his tweets. “Happy 20biteen!”