Riverdale star Lili Reinhart knew ‘from a young age’ she was bisexual but thought she’d be accused of ‘faking it for attention’
Lili Reinhart as Betty Cooper in Riverdale. (Netflix)
Lili Reinhart knew she was bisexual from a young age, but feared the media would accuse her of “faking it to get attention”.
The Riverdale star, 23, came out as a “proud bisexual woman” in June while promoting a Black Lives Matter protest.
But in an interview with Flaunt, she explained that she knew “full well that I was attracted to women from a young age”.
Reinhart admitted that because she has “exclusively been in hetero-normative relationships” — most notably with Riverdale co-star Cole Sprouse — she felt “it would be too easy for any outsider, especially the media, to vilify me and accuse me of faking it to get attention”.
“That’s not something I wanted to deal with,” she said of this bi-erasure. “But to my close friends, and those in my life, my bisexuality has been no secret.”
Lili Reinhart was inspired by Black Lives Matter to live her bisexual truth.
Lili Reinhart explained that it was marching for Black Lives Matter with members of West Hollywood’s queer community that inspired her to open up about her sexuality.
“It was incredible to be surrounded by so many people who are actively fighting against the injustices that are happening right now,” she said.
Before she began picketing, Reinhart said that she felt as though she “wasn’t doing enough” with her white privilege.
“And I felt that it was lame to keep reposting what everyone else is posting so I asked myself: ‘Okay, what do I have to offer?'”
The actor learned how to be a better ally by listening, coming to understand that the most important thing non-Black people can do in this fight is to amplify Black voices.
“This is their time to be heard,” she said. “White people have to acknowledge their f**king privilege, which exists, and is very real.
“It’s important that we don’t just sit on our asses and let someone else fight this fight for us because it involves absolutely everyone.”
