After the popular release of Tiger King on Netflix back in March, the internet was a swirl of water cooler gabbing surrounding Joe Exotic and other big cat owners in the US, including none other than Carole Baskin. No matter your opinion of what really happened to her second husband Don Lewis, Baskin recently revealed she could have just as easily have had a wife at some point in her life.
When Did She Realize She Was Bisexual?
Shortly after her elimination from Dancing with the Stars, Baskin sat down with PinkNews, where she discussed her sexual preferences and the history behind it all.
“I was engaged to a psychologist, and that was his entire field, dealing with the LGBT+ community,” Baskin recalled. “It was during the period when AIDS was just wreaking havoc around the world, and people were losing their loved ones, and so I became very close to people in that community then.”
It appears that Carole Baskin had feelings inside growing up that she couldn’t quite identify, even commenting on the fact that she always felt like a tomboy. It was her exposure to the LGBT+ community later in life that helped her realize what it all meant. As she put it:
“I was always very male-oriented in the things I did… I never had any mothering instincts or anything, you know, I never played with dolls. And so I always thought that there was something off there, that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. But it was during the ’80s that I discovered that through dealing with the LGBT+ community that I [realized] I had just as equal feelings for women as I did for men.”
(Netflix)
Did She Ever Date A Woman?
It’s unclear if Baskin ever acted on these feelings with a woman, as she did end up marrying men three times in her life, but from her perspective, it sounds like things very easily could have gone in a different direction as she went on to say:
“I have always considered myself to be bisexual. Even though I’ve never had a wife, I could just as easily have a wife as a husband. As far as the way I feel about us, I think we are all one and I just don’t see us as being different genders or different colors or anything.”
(Instagram)
How Does She Feel About Joe Exotic Being Gay?
From the show and other interviews, it is quite clear that Baskin is not a fan of Joe Exotic, and you really can’t blame her for that. But does his involvement in the LGBT+ community offer a different perspective? It appears not, as when Baskin was asked if Exotic was a good representation of the community she fired back:
“I think he’s an embarrassment to the human community. It’s not a matter of what your sexuality is, this man is just a deviant in the way that he treats human life and animal life. I think he’s a malignant narcissist, and that it’s all about him. It doesn’t have anything to do with any of the communities that he may associate himself with.”
As for her future relationships, it appears that her and husband Howard Baskin, whom she wed back in 2004, appear to be going strong, and no signs of a future wife are on the horizon.