Ask almost any James Dean fan what the biggest misconception about him is, and the fan will mention without hesitation “that he was homosexual,” which they insist he wasn’t. And they’re right. Dean didn’t prefer to have sex with men; he preferred to have sex with whomever he was attracted to, man or woman. He was unequivocally bisexual, and to contend otherwise is to completely misunderstand James Dean and diminish his appeal. The point is not necessarily that he was bisexual but rather that he insisted on a life without limitations, without boundaries, and without prejudice. If he saw a wall, he knocked it down just to see what was on the other side. He was not a rebel in the sense that he held up liquor stores and terrorized neighbors; he was a rebel in the sense that he refused to conform to what society propagated as acceptable behavior. And that is what made him “cool,” if he was, the cool of being true to himself - in and out of bed.

- Randall Riese, The Unabridged James Dean