Emma Gonzalez
This teen gun control activist doesn't just have pride. She makes us proud.
Before founding the March for Our Lives, the bisexual advocate was the president of her GSA at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Known for her bold buzz cut, she says it wasn't related to her queer identity, but to the Florida heat.
"People asked me, 'Are you taking a feminist stand?' No, I wasn't. It's Florida. Hair is just an extra sweater I'm forced to wear," Gonzalez recalled to thr Sun Sentinel. "I even made a PowerPoint presentation to convince my parents to let me shave my head, and it worked."
However, that didn't stop Leslie Gibson, a Republican candidate for the Maine House of Representatives, from calling her a "skinhead lesbian." His homophobia (and bi erasure) didn't do him any good. He was running unopposed, but Republican former state Sen. Thomas Martin Jr. jumped into the race, along with Eryn Gilchrist on the Democratice side, and they denounced Gibson's remarks.
A few days later, Gibson, a longtime National Rifle Association member, dropped out of the race.
Halsey
Not only has this bi singer-songwriter brought needed visibility to the music industry, but Ashley Nicolette Frangipane (Halsey) has penned some of the greatest bisexual anthems.
Halsey, who lovingly calls herself tri-bi, referring to her bisexual, biracial, and bipolar identities, sings openly about struggles she's had with both male and female partners in Bad at Love. She's has collaborated with Lauren Jauregui, the bisexual bandmate in Fifth Harmony, on "Strangers." Both have become staples of representation for the bi community.
Refusing to erase her bi identity, Halsey has created two music video cuts of her first hit, Ghost - one that features her in a relationship with a man and another with a woman.
An apologetic advocate, Halsey has stood up against sexual assault, delivering a poem at the Women's March in 2018 that went viral. When anti-LGBTQ protesters crashed her concerts, Halsey tweeted out the snarky response "I feel like I've done enough good in the world that God's gonna forgive me for eating some p*ssy."
Evan Rachel Wood
The Westworld actress came out as bisexual on Twitter in 2012, and she's been an outspoken champion for the community ever since.
In 2017, Wood received the Human Rights Campaign's Visibility Award. "I thought women were beautiful," she said in her acceptance speech. "But because I was born that way I never once stopped to think that was strange or anything to fear...I also thought that men were beautiful."
Wood has specifically addressed false stereotypes bisexuals face.
"I think because we're usually erased, people just don't have the information," she told Motto. "There ae so many negative connotations with that label. I understand the argument about labels and the desire to do away with them altogether. I think that's a great idea. But before that, we have to give people a chance to identify with somebody or a group in some way. That helped me."
Cynthia Nixon
The actress turned activist certainly has made her mark on the bisexual community.
The Emmy-winner had two children with schoolteacher Danny Mozes, and one of them is transgender. But later she began to date education activist Christine Marinoni, and they eventually married. They have a child together, and they attend the LGBTQ synagogue Congregation Beit Simchat Torah.
"I don't really feel I've changed. I'd been with men all my life, and I'd never fallen in love with a woman. But when I did, it didn't seem so strange. I'm just a woman in love with another woman," Nixon explained to The Telegraph in 2008. In 2012 she identified herself as bisexual.
After portraying a headstrong and powerful woman on Sex and the City, Nixon went on to run for governor of New York. During the race, former New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, a lesbian herself, referred to Nixon as "an unqualified lesbian." But Nixon took the label in stride.
Kyrsten Sinema
The Arizonan member of the U.S. House is the first openly bisexual person to be elected to Congress. However, she's just getting started.
This year she won the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate from Arizona, becoming the first out bisexual person to win a major party nomination for that body.
"We're simply people like everyone else who want and deserve respect," Sinema declared after a Republican colleague made demeaning remarks toward the LGBTQ community. When reporters pressed her for her sexuality, Sinema replied, "Duh, I'm bisexual."
Nina Simone
Not just a musician but also an outspoken figure who challenged how Americans view race, gender, and sexual orientation, Nina Simone is a bisexual icon.
After leaving her husband, a white beatnik named Don Ross, Simone moved to New York City in 1959, befriending James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, and Lorraine Hansberry, who soon became her mentor. In Harlem, she spent her days with gay and bisexual artists who focused on blackness and African independence. At the time, she partook in numerous same-sex affairs. However, that came to an end when she married former New York police detective Andrew Stroud, who physically and sexually abused her while working as her manager.
Although she died in 2003, her music lives on, sampled in songs by Lil Wayne, 50 Cent, the Roots, Dr. Dre, Common, Talib Kweli, Timbaland, Brother Ali, Prodigy, and Jay-Z.
Gaby Dunn
A YouTuber and a New York Times best-selling author, Dunn is one of the most necessary bisexual figures in new media.
A voice for both bisexuals and polyamorous individuals, Dunn has never been afraid to speak up and out, breaking down slut-shaming of queer women with comedy and grace.
"I say bisexual, but then people say, 'No you mean pansexual,' and then I say, 'Fine, queer./ Then people say, 'Queer is a slur.' So who knows?" Dunn told Autostraddle in 2016. "The queer people -- everyone stays friends. But I've also never had the bad experiences with queer people that I've had with cis men, so ... take from that what you will, world."
Sara Ramirez
Sara Ramirez came out as bisexual in 2016 after playing bisexual character Callie Torres on Grey's Anatomy for a decade. Since then, she's has become one of the most notable bisexual activists in Hollywood and has continued to play bisexual as Kat Sandoval on Madam Secretary.
A graduate of Julliard, the Tony winner was honored with the Ally for Equality Award by the Human Rights Campaign in 2015.
Married to Ryan DeBolt, Ramirez has worked hard to stand for bisexual visibility through philanthropy. As a member of the True Colors Fund board of directors and task force, she's combated homelessness among LGBTQ youth. She also lends her voice to the Bisexual Organizing Project, National Day Labor Organizing Network, and Mujeres de Maiz.
Frida Khalo
Frida Kahlo is one of the most impactful yet underacknowledged bisexuals in history.
While married to fellow artist Diego Rivera, Kahlo was openly bi and had several extramarital affairs. Her lovers included ranchera singer Chavela Vargas and actress Dolores del Rio. But it was dancer and international sensation Josephine Baker who won her heart.
After separating from Rivera in 1939, Kahlo traveled to Paris for an exhibition of her paintings. It's rumored that there she met Baker at a nightclub. The two, who had both suffered multiple miscarriages, sought unusual ways to become mothers. Kahlo would portray her unborn child through her art, while Baker adopted 12 children. The two artists were politically engaged and outspoken activists; Kahlo offered refuge to ousted Soviet leader Leon Trotsky, and Baker became a French spy during World War II and also fought for black civil rights.
Roxane Gay
Named one of the most influential LGBTQ people in media by The Advocate in 2017, Gay has never shied away from the most difficult issues, including her sexuality.
Originally, the writer came out as a lesbian, but she later said she's always felt she was bi.
"When I came out I knew it wasn't the whole truth. I knew that I was also still attracted to men, but I was so scared of men that I just thought, OK, I'm just going to find some safe harbor here, and so I wanted to be the best lesbian I could so that maybe that would make my attraction to men go away," Gay told NPR. "No community has been more welcoming to me, and when I needed community the most, [that] community was there for me."
"It was like discovering water for the first time, discovering clean air for the first time -- to be seen and to be appreciated and to be thought of as sexy and beautiful, it was just invaluable, and I will never, ever forget the ways in which I was embraced by my community as I came out," she concluded.
Carrie Brownstein
Although she was outed by the publication Spin when she was just 21, Brownstein has grown to be proud of her bisexuality.
Spin detailed that one of her songs from her Sleater-Kinney days was about her romantic relationship with female band mate Corin Tucker, changing Brownstein's life forever. "I hadn't seen the article, and I got a phone call. My dad called me and was like, 'The Spin article's out. Um, do you want to let me know what's going on?' The ground was pulled out from underneath me ... my dad did not know that Corin and I had ever dated, or that I even dated girls," she explained.
In 2010, Brownstein identified herself as bisexual, saying "It's weird because no one's actually ever asked me. People just always assume, like, you're this or that. It's like, OK. I'm bisexual. Just ask."
Since then, the actress has played gay on Transparent.
Maraget Cho
Comedian Margaret Cho was out as bisexual long before the term was even in most people's lexicon.
Boldly taking on race and sexuality in her comedy, Cho has been on the cover of many gay magazines.
In 2004, Cho started Love Is Love, a website that promoted marriage equality. That year she was invited to speak at the Democratic National Convention but was disinvited from speaking because people thought her comments might be too controversial. But her activism did not end there. In 2007, she joined the True Colors Tour, where she performed with Cyndi Lauper and the Indigo Girls to raise money for the Human Rights Campaign, PFLAG, and the Matthew Shepard Foundation.
"I don't know if using bisexual is right because that indicates that there's only two genders, and I don't believe that. I've been with people all across the spectrum of gender and who have all kinds of different expressions of gender, so it's so hard to say. Maybe pansexual is technically the more correct term but I like bisexual because it's kind of '70s," Cho told HuffPost in 2018.
