Taylor Jenkins Reid, the author of several bestselling novels including “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo,” “Daisy Jones & The Six” and “Malibu Rising,” came out as bisexual in an interview with Time magazine.
“It has been hard at times to see people dismiss me as a straight woman, but I also didn’t tell them the whole story,” the author told the outlet in an interview published May 15.
Reid, whose new novel, “Atmosphere,” comes out June 3, said assumptions about her sexuality are nothing new for her. In fact, she said, they began when she was a teenager and dressed differently than the social norm.
“I got hit pretty quickly with, ‘Why can’t you dress more like a girl? Why don’t you do your nails? Why do you talk that way? Can’t you be a little bit quieter?’” she told Time. “I started to get people who would say, ‘Oh, I get why you dress like a boy—you’re gay.’”
But, Reid said, she didn’t feel like she identified with being labeled as gay, as she was attracted to both sexes — her first love was a man and then, in her early 20s, she fell in love with a woman. With both loves, however, people doubted if it was the right course for her.
“This was the late ‘90s, so nobody was talking about bisexuality. And if they were, it was to make fun of people,” she said. “The messages about bisexuality were you just want attention, or it was a stop on the way to gayville.”
In her writing, Reid hasn’t been shy when it comes to depicting characters who fall along different points of the sexuality spectrum.
In “Daisy Jones & The Six,” the main romance centers around a heterosexual love triangle, while “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” details a love story between two women. Meanwhile, “Malibu Rising” showcases mainly heterosexual relationships, but one character experiences a queer awakening.
Her new book, “Atmosphere,” allowed Reid to explore more of her attraction to women. The novel features a love story between one woman in outer space and one on earth.
“It just felt like time for me to write a very high-stakes, dramatic love story,” she told Time.
While she may not have always been open with the public about the specifics of her sexuality, she told Time that she was always honest with those closest to her. Her husband, screenwriter Alex Jenkins Reid, even introduced her to an idea that describes someone’s sexuality as a house with many rooms.
“My attraction to women is a room in the house that is my identity — Alex understood [“Atmosphere”] was about me spending time in that room,” Reid said. “He was so excited for me, like, ‘What a great way for you to express this side of you.’ And he helped me get the book to be as romantic and beautiful as it could be.”
Reid also said she understands being married to a man gives her “straight-passing” privileges that other queer women don’t receive.
“How do I talk about who I really am with full deference to the life experiences of other people?” she told Time. “Basically, where I came down is I can talk about who I am, and then people can think about that whatever they want.”
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