‘9-1-1: Lone Star’s’ Ronen Rubinstein Comes Out as Bisexual

The Texas-set 9-1-1 spinoff series is already popular for its queer representation, but things just got a whole lot gayer.

In a recent interview with Variety, Israeli-American actor Ronen Rubinstein publicly announced that he identifies as bisexual. The 27-year-old plays Tyler Kennedy “T.K.” Strand, the gay son of Rob Lowe’s character on the show, and is one-half of the fan-favorite couple known as “Tarlos,” comprising of Strand and his boyfriend, Carlos, played by out actor Rafael L. Silva.

Rubinstein told Variety his awakening is “a journey,” and playing gay helped him come to terms with and accept his own sexuality.

“I fully identify as bisexual,” he said. “I literally just got goosebumps saying that. It feels so good to talk about it; it feels so good to finally be comfortable with it.

“The biggest thing for me is where I come from; it’s like people like me and people who have identified as bisexual or gay or as any part of the community, you’re just not welcomed,” he continued. “It’s as brutally honest as that. It’s either you faced insane amounts of profanity, like the F-word was thrown around all the time, or you would get your ass kicked if you were gay. So there was definitely a fear of sort of embracing how I felt. I was definitely more aware of it in high school. I was aware of my feelings and how I started looking at men, but I couldn’t talk to anybody about it.”

Before 9-1-1: Lone Star, Rubinstein appeared in Netflix’s Orange is the New Black and Freeform’s Dead of Summer.

Related Article: Congressional Candidate Mckayla Wilkes Comes Out as Bisexual

During his coming out journey, Rubinstein spoke with Silva, 9-1-1 co-creator Ryan Murphy, and his girlfriend, Jessica Parker Kennedy.

“She’s actually one of the first people that sort of respectfully called me out on it,” Rubinstein said. “She’s like, ‘Is there something we need to talk about?’ And I said, ‘Maybe.’ I didn’t know how that conversation would go. And it went probably as good as it can go. She definitely encouraged me to be vocal about it, just to live my truth. She’s like, ’I love you for who you are, your full self, and people will love you for who you are and your full self. She just sometimes jokes, ’Just don’t leave me for Harry Styles.’”

On behalf of OFM, welcome to the family, Ronen!

Photos Courtesy of Social Media