On November 18th, Fifth Harmony’s Lauren Jauregui came out as bisexual in an open letter to Donald Trump voters. “I am a bisexual Cuban-American woman and I am so proud of it,” she said. While many responses to her letter were positive and congratulated her for coming out, some hateful comments claimed she was just “looking for attention” or “jumping on a bisexual trend.”

Unfortunately, “looking for attention” is a common misconception about bisexuality. Since Lauren Jauregui is part of the successful girl group Fifth Harmony, some people claim that she is coming out as bisexual in order to “stay relevant.”

Several other celebrities have also come out as bisexual this year, including Kristen Stewart, Bella Thorne, and Sara Ramirez. The increasing amount of celebrities coming out as bisexual has created this false idea of bisexuality being a “trend,” even though that is untrue. Celebrities’ sexualities should be seen as valid, no matter what the sexual orientation.

If someone chooses to come out, they are doing it because they feel that it is important to them. Their coming out process should not be belittled by commenting “who cares” because it matters to the person coming out.

Alternative artist Halsey is also openly bisexual. Earlier this year, she was featured in a controversial Buzzfeed article that criticized her image as a bisexual celebrity, such as the pronouns she uses in her music, her choice of clothes, her love interests in her music videos, and even the people she spends time with.

Halsey responded to the article with now-deleted tweets saying “well @BuzzFeed sorry I’m not gay enough for you.” She went on to bring awareness about discrimination towards bisexuals because people are constantly questioning the credibility of their sexual orientation.

Shane Dawson, a YouTuber who came out as bisexual last year, said, "I can't honestly say I'm gay. I can't honestly say I'm straight. But I can honestly say that I am open to love in any way and I guess that makes me bisexual."

There are so many misconceptions about bisexualty and one of the most popular is that it isn’t real. People believe that it is “just a phase” or that the person is “actually gay.”

Lauren, Halsey. And Shane are all trying to bring awareness to the discrimination towards bisexuals, especially among celebrities. Unfortunately, so many people are not taking their sexual orientations seriously because of these rude stereotypes.

Bisexuals are real. They can have a preference towards one gender, or like them both equally. Just because a woman is dating another woman, does not make them lesbians, just like a man dating another man doesn’t make them gay. Bisexuality is a feeling, not an action, and if someone feels an attraction to both men and women, their sexual orientation should not be questioned, and instead, should be accepted.