Carole Baskin Has Come Out As Bisexual

"I was engaged to a psychologist, and that was his entire field, dealing with the LGBT+ community," she said.

"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."

Baskin sometimes feels like she was born into the wrong body and claims she is a tomboy.

"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," she continued.

"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 [realised] I had just as equal feelings for women as I did for men."

She said that while she is married to her husband Howard, she could just as easily have married a woman. Baskin added that she doesn't see people according to the gender binary.

After coming out as bisexual, the Big Cat Rescue founder was asked for her thoughts on Joe Exotic (obviously), but not for the reason you might think.

While there are many issues with the gun toting former big cat zoo owner, Baskin was asked to comment on Exotic as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community.

She replied, saying: "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."

Baskin revealed she went on the Dancing With the Stars competition to help keep her Big Cat Rescue park open.

The park has lost $1 million during the coronavirus pandemic and the reality TV show helped her foot some of the bills, even though she was only on the programme for two weeks.