Zach Rance, who first rose to international attention on Big Brother 16 back in 2014, has come out as bisexual.
The 30-year-old opened up about his sexuality in a virtual conversation with the Mental Health Collection and With Love, Alexa on Tuesday, December 8. It was also here that he admitted to hooking up with BB costar Frankie Grande after the two of them sparked a ton of romance speculation while inside the house (fans referred to them as “Zankie”).
“I’ve been straight my entire life, I’ve only liked women,” Rance said during the near 2-hour conversation. “But on Big Brother, Frankie and I got super, super close. I fell in love with who he was as a person. Super funny, super smart. Good looking guy. As time went on, we got so close that I wasn’t really sure if I had feelings for him or not. You know, I’ve always been straight so it was never a thing [for me] to like guys.”
After the season ended Grande & Rance explored a “relationship that was more than friends” which was initially confusing for the latter to experience.
“He was the first guy that I ever hooked up with. After that night, I was very unsure about the direction of my sexuality because I like women,” he said. “And after we hooked up, I was very uncertain about what was my next move.”
Rance then tried to figure out what kind of guy he would like while figuring out his feelings for the bubby television personality. “I was like, ‘Wait a second. Is it just because Frankie is someone who I’m really close with?’” he wondered.
This led to him hooking up with another guy at a photoshoot although the idea of taking things further in the romantic department with a guy was something he was still struggling with.
“The more I thought about being with a guy … you know, making out is one thing. But doing more than making out with a guy is something that I just don’t want to do and I’d never tried it,” he said. “But I just want to come out and say that I enjoyed hooking up with Frankie and the other guy I hooked up with, clearly I enjoyed it.”
https://twitter.com/ranceypants/status/1192181823587147776
Years later the mental health coach is secure in who he is and his identity and is now using his platform in hopes that others will do the same.
“We try not to label anything, you know, gender is super fluid. So it’s hard for me to say I’m straight. I’m not gay either,” he said. “I just wanted to come out and say that and be transparent and come out and say [that] I am bisexual, even though I do lean more toward heterosexuality.”
“But I just wanted to clear the air on that. … I want to inspire other people to — maybe not experiment, I don’t know if that’s the right word. But to just be more open-minded because you can fall in love with someone’s mind, you can fall in love with someone’s heart. … You don’t have to just be attracted to the way they look.”
Rance and Grande are two of the many Big Brother players who identify as LGBTQ. The first was openly gay Bill “Bunky” Miller in season 2 way back in 2001. They had their first trans houseguest on the show 17th season when Audrey Middleton competed. Others include season 15 winner Andy Herren and Kevin Campbell (pictured above) who competed on the show’s most recent season.