Mae Whitman Is Pansexual, Falls In Love With People of All Genders Thank You Very Much!

Feature image by Amy Sussman/Getty Images for Los Angeles Confidential Magazine

One of the core tenants of the Autostraddle TV Team’s beliefs is: a person who plays gay thrice will be gay in real life. We have long been waiting for this to be true of Mae Whitman, who played gay half-ninja Roxie Richter in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and currently plays gay whole witch Amity on The Owl House. Yes, yes, and she plays lots of other things on lots of other shows too — Arrested Development, Parenthood, Good Girls, Batgirl about a million times, etcetera — but that is not why we are here today. No, we are here today because Mae Whitman has just come out as pansexual, because she falls in love with people of all genders, thank you very much.

In a tweet about Amity and Luz, my heart’s most favorite couple on TV right now, Whitman said she wishes she’d had characters like them growing up ’cause hey she’s gay! She followed it up with some GLAAD resources and said she’s “proud+happy to be part of the Bi+ community!”

AND SO ARE WE, MAE WHITMAN! WE ARE PROUD TOO!

Another reason I was always thinking Mae Whitman is probably part of the bi+ community is the very bisexual way she’s always sitting with all her entire feets in her chair and also leaning on everything with a smirk. For one recent example:

Mae Whitman attends Los Angeles Confidential Magazine celebrating Women of Influence on April 09, 2021 in Beverly Hills, California

Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images for Los Angeles Confidential Magazine

Congratulations to Mae for coming out, and to me having yet another chance to say you should watch The Owl House.  HOOTY HOOT!

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Heather Hogan

Heather Hogan is an Autostraddle senior editor who lives in New York City with her wife, Stacy, and their cackle of rescued pets. She's a member of the Television Critics Association, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer critic. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Heather has written 1718 articles for us.

15 Comments

  2. I teared up with pure joy at this news!!! Congratulations to Mae Whitman on being her wonderful queer self!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    (This means Katara is queer now and no one can tell me otherwise!)

    • I came here to comment this precise thing! I’m so happy for her and the aura of queerness this now brings to all of her characters :D

  4. How could you forget to mention she’s KATARA in Avatar: The Last Airbender?? 💕🏳️‍🌈

    • Love this!
      I always thought her character in parenthood was queer, there was a lot of queer coding!! A lot!!

    • For Both sexuality, they kinda overlap and that okay, For Bisexual you can like more than two genders (This definition has been defined by Bisexuals since the 70’s by them) So you can be Bisexual and like women and nonbinary folks, or Men and women, Men and Nonbinary individuals. And Of Course, Pansexual means Attracted to all the genders but you can have a preference for gender, but that doesn’t stop the person from being attracted to more than one gender.

      The same goes for Bisexuality and really all the other multisexual orientations under the bi+umbrella.

      Hope that helps explain it.

    • As a bi woman, I define bi or bi+ as being attracted to my own gender and at least one other gender. I’ve heard pan defined as being attracted to all genders and I’ve also heard it defined as being attracted to people without paying attention to gender. To me, there’s a lot of overlap between the two identities.

      The best discussion of this that I’ve read is something Rachel wrote a few years ago in a YNH column – read the 3rd question and her answer – https://www.autostraddle.com/you-need-help-three-classic-bisexual-questions-now-with-bisexual-answers-433856/)

      Here’s a quote: “bisexual is being attracted to your own and other genders, which can certainly be inclusive of being attracted to your own and also all other genders; it’s possible to identify both as pansexual and bisexual, and many people do! Both identifiers come with the unfortunate reality that some people will probably make incorrect assumptions at one point or another, whether erring on the side of assuming that you’re rigidly binarist or that your sexual orientation is a sort of gender-nihilist political project. Unfortunately, there isn’t an identifier you can go with that will keep flawed assumptions from happening, full stop. But you can honor your experiences and the genders and experiences of your partners, and the right people who are willing to listen and take you seriously will understand that!”

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