Bi Activists and Change-Makers

More LGBTQ+ people identify as bisexual than any other sexuality, yet bisexuals are still often left out of the conversation and discriminated against. Bisexual people have been at the forefront of the fight for LGBTQ+ equality and existed through history, so myGwork want to use this bisexual visibility month to highlight and uplift their voices. Here are just a few of our favorite bicons:

Amandla Stenberg

Identifying as non-binary and pansexual, Amandla Stenberg is a strong advocate for LGBTQ+ equality. Rising to fame at the age of 14 in their role as Rue in Hunger Games, the actor and singer was included in Time's list of Most Influential Teens in both 2015 and 2016 and has received several accolades, including a Teen Choice Award, an NAACP Image Award, and nominations for four Black Reel Awards and a Critics' Choice Award.

"Gender and sexuality are so fluid. It's OK to change your mind a million times and figure out what works for you. It's OK to take your time," Stenberg shared with Seventeen magazine in 2018. "I love that we have this umbrella term of 'queer,' and so many things can exist underneath it, but I realized that part of my journey was hiding underneath that umbrella because I was scared — on a personal and a public level — to confront what I was."

"It was easier for me to say, 'I'm bi' or "I'm pan' as I was figuring it out. But I came to a place where I felt really proud of my sexuality, and I decided I wanted to share that pride."

Jameela Jamil

Jameela Jamil is an actress, model, activist, self-described feminist-in-progress and host of the award-winning podcast, I weigh. She came out as queer in 2020 and saw a backlash and criticism from the press. “People are still kind of stuck in the linear and don’t understand the spectrum of sexuality,” she shared with The Times.

“I guess I’m bisexual, but also quite fancy everyone. I don’t know if that means that I’m pansexual. But I don’t just fancy cis straight men; I fancy everyone.”

Leslie Cheung Kowk-wing

Often referred to as one of the founding fathers of Cantopop, Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing was a Hong Kong-Canadian singer and actor.

His career started in 1977, as he rose to fame as a teen heartthrob and pop icon of the ‘80s, receiving numerous awards including Most Popular Male Artist in 1988 and Jade Solid Gold Best Ten Music Awards.

Cheung shared in an interview in 1992 "My mind is bisexual. It's easy for me to love a woman. It's also easy for me to love a man, too… I believe that a good actor would be androgynous, and ever-changing."

Alice Walker

Alice Walker is an author, poet, and activist. Her essays and fiction explore gender and race and she is best known for her critically acclaimed novel The Color Purple, published in 1982. The book won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making her the first woman of color to win this prize. The novel was also adapted into an Oscar-nominated film in 1985.

Alan Cunning

Alan Cunning is a Scottish actor, singer, writer, filmmaker, and activist. Many have referred to him as a queer icon since the late ‘90s and in 1999 was described by the New York Observer as a “frolicky pansexual sex symbol for the new millennium.” In November that year, he posed nude on the cover of Out Magazine, one of the largest LGBTQ+ publications at the time. The cover had an interview alongside it that was a bold, fearless declaration that he was attracted to both men and women, coming out in one of the most high-profile announcements of this era.

Cynthia Nixon

Shooting to fame playing Miranda on Sex and the City, Cynthia Nixon is an actress, politician and activist. She announced her campaign to run for Governor of New York in 2018, and although she did not win her platform highlighted income inequality, renewable energy, universal healthcare and protection of undocumented children. Throughout her career, she has been a strong advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and won a Visibility Award for the Human Rights Campaign in 2018.

Keiynan Lonsdale

Keiynan Lonsdale is an actor, dancer and singer-songwriter best known for roles in The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow Divergent Series: Insurgent, The Finest Hours, and Love, Simon.

He often uses his platform to speak out for LGBTQ+ rights and came out as bisexual in 2017, explaining “I like to change my hair, I like to take risks with how I dress, I like girls, & I like guys (yes), I like growing, I like learning, I like who I am, and I really like who I'm becoming. Spent way too many years hating myself, thinking I was less valuable because I was different, which is just untrue. A couple of years ago I was able to accept myself, & it saved my life, but now I've gotten to a new roadblock & I feel kind of lost. I gotta take the next step & actually embrace who I am, which is pretty exciting… Not apologising for falling in love with people no matter their gender”.

Robyn Ochs

Robyn Ochs is a writer, activist and public speaker well known for her work fighting for bisexual visibility and equality. Speaking of her sexuality, she shared “I call myself bisexual because I acknowledge in myself the potential to be attracted — romantically and/or sexually — to people of more than one gender, not necessarily at the same time, in the same way, or to the same degree.”