Amandla Stenberg is giving us life once again by sharing her wisdom on gender and sexuality.
In a Q&A session for teen website, Rookie, Amandla discusses her sexuality and intersectionality. In the video, the teen shares that she identifies as bisexual, but would also consider herself pansexual. “I identify publicly as bisexual. I would also use the word pansexual to describe my sexuality because I’m attracted to people regardless of their gender expression or gender identity. But the thing is, I’ve used the word bisexual because for people who don’t necessarily know that vocabulary or aren’t familiar with the vocabulary, it’s easier for me to just say that I’m bi.”
Amandla also touched on the issue of bisexual erasure saying, “As as bi person, bi erasure is so real and you don’t realize how deep it is until you’re in that moment where you’re like, ‘Oh my god, I like this girl she’s so cute. Oh wait I’ve been lesbian the whole time,’ and then the next moment you end up hanging out with this guy, ‘Oh my god, I have a crush on this guy. Oh, wait, I’m totally straight I was never gay,’ and you kind of just get stuck in that because you forget that you can be both. You can be bisexual. Bisexuality is a real thing, it’s not a myth.” The actress said she understands how hard it can be to see that when there is very little bisexual representation in the media. And, often when bisexuality is talked about, it’s talked about negatively or fetishized.
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“Just remind yourself that your identity is valid. I’ll say it a million times, your identity is valid. It’s one hundred percent valid.”
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