Disney Channel Star Joshua Rush Opens Up About His Sexuality With Fans
(CNN) -- Joshua Rush portrayed Disney Channel's first gay teen character on "Andi Mack" and now he is sharing about his own sexuality.
On Tuesday the 17-year-old actor shared a series of tweets in which he shared that he is bisexual.
Rush kicked it all off with a bit of a joke.
"First to respond to this tweet is bi lol," he tweeted.
Rush, who played Cyrus Goodman on "Andi Mack," which recently wrapped, answered his own tweet first.
"First! i win! it's me. i'm bi. And now that I've said that, I have a few things to rant about," he tweeted. "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."
He then went on to talk about that as his character's coming out influenced others. "How ironic, isn't it, that me, playing that character, never had mustered up that courage?"
"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," Rush tweeted.
The young actor also said he had a close friend come out to him in fifth grade.
"That was well before I had any clue of my own identity and orientation," he tweeted. "I suffered with some level of my own internalized homophobia even while playing the first openly gay character on Disney Channel."
Rush went on to talk about the erasure of bisexual people, the life expectancy of trans women and encouraged his followers to contribute to GLAAD and The Trevor Project.
He also thanked everyone for giving him the courage to share and had a moment of levity.
"I have so many bi jokes ive been waiting to drop this is so exciting," Rush tweeted.
The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2019 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.