When author Mike Szmanski was asked, “Why couldn’t he just be with a woman and be like normal?”, his response showed how normal he is.
From a young age, Mike Szmanski knew he was interested in boys and girls, but he didn’t know what bisexuality was, or have a word to use for his feelings. but when he saw an episode of Laugh-in, when a guy came to a party with a girl and a guy, he remembers thinking, ““I want to do that. I want to go to a party with a girl and a guy.” Not just a girl, not just a guy, but both of them.”
When he got older, coming out was a repeat process. He came out as gay, then began seeing a woman, came out as bisexual, was invited on Phil Donahue to talk about this “unusual” thing, lost the girl, and met the man he’s been with for 18 years.
For many people, bisexuality conjures up the image of a closeted gay person, or someone who just wants everyone, or can’t make up their mind who they want.
Mike Szmanski is very clear about his bisexuality and how it affects his life:
We’ve (John) been together now for 18 years. We have a child that he had with my sister so I’m the uncle. But we’re pretty much a nuclear family. And we’re boring. We’re boring now, we go to the PTA meetings and concerts. But we’re together and we both identify as bisexuals and that throws a lot of people off. It’s often a frequent conversation with the family at Thanksgiving dinner, they don’t understand it. “So you’re still bisexual?” “Yeah, we’re still bisexual.”
I did have relationships with women that I thought were it and that I would spend the rest of my life with her, but then John and I clicked and we really have been together solidly all this time, and we have kids and dachshunds and just a boring life up here in the Hollywood Hills. I always thought bisexuality was always a fun and sexy label.
He and John were photo-featured in a New York Times article about bisexuality, which was significant for being a mainstream publication to show, “pictures of people who are bisexual, you can see that it’s not just the cool kids with nose rings, it’s people of different ages, my friend Gary here who is a grandfather, and people of all colors, you realize they can be part of any community. You don’t have to just be in Hollywood to be bisexual, you can be anywhere.”
Originally published at ImFromDriftwood.com. I’m From Driftwood envisions a world where every lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer person feels understood and accepted, and every straight person is an ally.
IMO, I gie a rats ass what people do in bed. NOT INTERESTED one way or another. Just be a person, why do you have to have a “tag” or a “label” ????