In the midst of the protests demanding justice for George Floyd around the U.S., Riverdale’s Lili Reinhart has casually come out as “a proud bisexual woman.”
Reinhart, who recently broke up with Riverdale co-star and boyfriend Cole Sprouse, has been taking to the streets and protesting, using her 23.9 million follower platform on Instagram to promote black American voices. Just yesterday, she went on an Instagram Live with 19-year-old black activist Kenidra R. Woods.
But, in a recent Instagram Story and on the third day of Pride, the Hustlers actress shared details of an LGBTQIA+ protest for Black Lives Matter in West Hollywood, Los Angeles, and came out as bisexual in the post.
“Although I’ve never announced it publicly before, I am a proud bisexual woman,” the Riverdale star wrote. “And I will be joining this protest. Come join.”
While we’re proud of Reinhart for coming out, we don’t really see what it has to do with attending the protest. You can attend a protest for a minority without actually being part of that community, and this kinda takes a way from the conversation on systemic racism right now.
That said, it’s important for people in the LGBTQIA+ community to support the Black Lives Matter because if it were not for black queer people, there would be no Pride month. Pride came about after the Stonewall Riots, a series of violent demonstrations and riots by LGBTQIA+ people at the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay venue in New York City, after police raided the facility and tried to shut it down.
The movement was led by Marsha P. Johnson, a black trans woman, and other queer people of colour. So, it’s just as important for queer people to be there for the black community, and that extends to right now in Australia with our Indigenous Australian communities.
As Johnson famously once said, “history isn’t something you look back at and say it was inevitable, it happens because people make decisions that are sometimes very impulsive and of the moment, but those moments are cumulative realities.”
Anyway, congrats Lili. We’re proud of you for coming out and protesting. If you yourself would like to protest against the systemic racism in America (and our own home country towards Indigenous Australians), our friends at Syrup have a handy guide of when and where to protest around the country.
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