Michaela Kennedy-Cuomo, the youngest daughter of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, honored LGBTQ Pride Month this week by opening up about her own sexuality for the first time.
Kennedy-Cuomo on Thursday posted a colorful image to Instagram that showed her wearing a baseball cap emblazoned with the words “gay for you.” In the accompanying caption, the 23-year-old revealed that she is bisexual.
“Today, I stand in my queer identity with pride, and in memory of those who came before me,” Kennedy-Cuomo wrote. “I stand indebted to the activists who fought for my right to love and happiness. I stand with a helping hand outreached to those finding their way from under socially constructed boxes to emerge from the closet. I’m standing with you.”
Elsewhere in the post, she criticized the “compulsive heterosexuality our society force feeds us,” as well as social media platforms like Instagram that she said have censored LGBTQ-inclusive hashtags like #bi and #lesbian.
“If #bi weren’t censored, maybe I could have accessed the information and tools that as a bisexual person I would need to protect myself from increased rates of sexual victimization, homelessness, hunger, unemployment, hate crimes, and mental health challenges,” she explained.
Responding to his daughter’s announcement, Cuomo told People in a Thursday statement, “I love, support and couldn’t have more pride in Michaela.”
Kennedy-Cuomo, whose mother is author and activist Kerry Kennedy, reportedly had never acknowledged her sexuality in a public forum before Thursday’s post. However, she’s previously used social media to express her support of LGBTQ rights on several occasions.
Last year she tweeted about Bisexuality Visibility Day (Sept. 23) and has shared photos showing her accompanying her father, a Democrat, to New York’s LGBTQ Pride Parade.