Mike Manning From "Real World D.C." Really is Bisexual. Deal With It.

Mike Manning 

While visibility for gay men has increased nicely over the past ten years, the same can't really be said for the visiblity of bisexual men. Where gay men now have a host of other out gay men — Neil Patrick Harris, Cheyenne Jackson, Lance Bass, T. R. Knight, Sir Elton John, Tonex — to put a public face on homosexuality, the list of well-known openly bisexual men is still depressingly small. 

But one name you can add to that list is Mike Manning of The Real World: D.C. Despite the way MTV has edited clips and teased viewers in promos, and despite the fact that at least one of Mike's D.C. housemates, not to mention one of the guys he dated on the show, insists he's actually gay, Manning knows himself well enough to know that he's truly attracted to both men and women. 

And that's a good thing for other bisexual men looking for someone to represent them in the public eye. The 22-year-old Colorado native never set out to be that spokesperson — heck, he never even intended to be on The Real World — but now that the role has been thrust on him, he's willing to do his part. 

AfterElton.com recently had the chance to talk with Manning, who is currently attending college at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, about being such a visible spokesperson, how his friends and family reacted when he came out, and how making out with a real Prince Charming cued him in as to his actual sexuality. 

AfterElton.com: It seems like the show has made a great deal out of how you're supposedly “figuring out” your sexuality and trying to decide things. And in a recent episode you specifically said to Eric, the guy you were dating, "I need more time. You've had time to deal with these issues." So what exactly were you trying to figure out during the episode and during the series? Have you figured it out entirely at this point? How do you identify now?
Mike Manning: I think during the season, I went on to the show right after coming out to my family and … my ten closest friends and it was all fine and great, but most of my other friends didn't know. You know, you branch out from high school and you move out of your home town and go to college and a lot of your high school friends don't follow you, so none of my old friends from high school knew.

I went on the season kind of nervous and really unsure about how to act. I hadn't been around many gay or bi people or lesbians. I was just nervous about it. Not really insecure, but just more timid because I didn't have any experience with it. I went on the show, and from day one, everybody asks me. I didn't want to come out to the roommates right up front because I wanted them to get to know me as a person first and then get to know my orientation and other details about my life, but it just kind of happened that way that they asked me and I was like, "You know what? I'm not going to be a hypocrite. I'm not going to pretend to be so confident and comfortable with it and then lie to their faces on the first day that I meet them." So I came out as bi, and I told them the truth, and my relationship with guys and girls and everything like that, but I was still kind of unsure.

Manning (left) with his Real World roommates

Throughout the season, I became more and more comfortable with it. I was having conversations with the girls and even with the guys in the house. We talked about my experiences and my thoughts about certain things. I worked for the Human Rights Campaign and I lobbied Congressmen for equal rights, and that was definitely a huge, huge help because I'm a business person, so I respect professionalism and people that work hard and are intelligent. Being able to work with HRC really helped me a lot because it showed me this whole office of super-intelligent people who were comfortable with themselves and had overcome tons of challenges to get where they were. A lot of them took me under their wings.